Is AI all a fad? A new report suggests very few people are using tools like ChatGPT and the hype is being misconstrued for actual public interest
A new report suggests that very few people are using AI and that it’s all hype.
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What you need to know
As you might have probably figured out, huge corporations are investing heavily ingenerative AI. Apple pulled the plug on its electric car project and channeled the resources to AI advances. A new report suggests OpenAI and Apple recentlysigned a deal to bring ChatGPT to the iPhone.
Perhaps a bid to catch up with Microsoft, which according to analysts ison the brink of reaching its iPhone moment with AIafter becomingthe world’s most valuable company ahead of Applewith over $3 trillion in market capitalization.
Interestingly, anew reportby the Reuters Institute and Oxford University indicates very few people are using AI, despite the overwhelming hype around the technology and its advances (viaBBC).
The research included a survey that examined 12,000 people across six countries to determine the usefulness of AI tools like ChatGPT. Strangely enough, only 2% of the participants use AI tools daily. The study also revealed that the youth (ages 18-24) are more inclined toward AI and more likely to integrate the technology into their routines.
While speaking to the BBC, the report’s lead author, Dr. Richard Fletcher explained that most people are misconstruing the hype around AI for public interest.
Is anyone actually using AI tools?
In a poll recently featured on Windows Central’s website,half of our polled readers disclosed that they never use Copilot. At the time, Microsoft had just begun testing a new way tolaunch the tool like an AI genieif you so much as tickle the taskbar icon.
Interestingly, a separate report by Appfigures suggests thatOpenAI’s launch of its new flagship GPT-4o modelwith reasoning capabilities across text, audio, and image in real-time contributed toChatGPT’s biggest spike ever in revenue and downloads on mobile.
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In my opinion, the reservations towards AI are mainly centered on privacy, security, and applicable use cases. A great example would beMicrosoft’s next-gen AI Windows Recall feature,which is expected to ship to Windows 11 in June. It acts like a time capsule capturing snapshots of everything you do on your PC, allowing you to refer to the locally stored snapshots for future reference.
While Microsoft promises the feature is 100% privacy-focused and presents it as an opt-in experience, most users have blatantly raised security and privacy concerns across social media, with some even comparing it to aBlack Mirror episode. The UK data watchdog is alreadylooking into some of the raised issues.
Microsoft promised that it wouldn’t use the data accessed by the feature to train its models. The tech giant is shipping these next-gen AI features exclusively toCopilot+ PCs with powerful NPUs, however, we already know thatWindows Recall can run on unsupported hardwarebut with a huge performance compromise.
Kevin Okemwa is a seasoned tech journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya with lots of experience covering the latest trends and developments in the industry at Windows Central. With a passion for innovation and a keen eye for detail, he has written for leading publications such as OnMSFT, MakeUseOf, and Windows Report, providing insightful analysis and breaking news on everything revolving around the Microsoft ecosystem. You’ll also catch him occasionally contributing at iMore about Apple and AI. While AFK and not busy following the ever-emerging trends in tech, you can find him exploring the world or listening to music.
