Survey shows strong, bipartisan support for community-level AI education

Today, Seed AI, a new nonprofit advocating for more artificial intelligence (AI) resources for communities nationwide, released the results of a survey they conducted in partnership with Morning Consult investigating the public’s perceptions of AI. In short, there is broad, bipartisan, pan-generational support for investing in AI education.

The survey, for which Morning Consult interviewed 2,200 adults between October 2 and 5, 2021, found that 74 percent of adults support investment in AI education. This strong support persists across every single age group, political party, and income level — from Democrats to Republicans; GenZers to Baby Boomers; low-income to the wealthy.

Furthermore, when asked, even more Americans, 76 percent, say that it is important for the U.S. to be viewed as a global leader in AI Education. While there are critical efforts now underway at the Federal and State levels to promote access to AI education programs, the U.S. approach to AI education is a still a “work in progress,” and lags behind action being taken by other countries which have made AI literacy a priority for their citizens. India’s government recently announced an ‘AI for All’ initiative which aims to introduce AI to one million citizens in its first year. Finland developed an online course with a goal of teaching 1% of Europe’s population about artificial intelligence. And indeed, since 2018, China has made nationwide AI education a priority, including for elementary school.

In a time when it seems like nearly every issue has become partisan, AI education and workforce readiness remain tentpole issues with wide support from a diverse array of Americans. For policymakers searching for common ground, a focus on our AI readiness offers the chance to work together on an issue that bridges several topics that people truly care about: education, the economy, and technology.

Seed AI’s survey also reveals the importance of working at the community level — three quarters of Millennial (74%) and GenX (74%) adults say they would be at least slightly more interested in learning about AI’s current and future uses if there were opportunities to do so in their local community. Moreover, Three quarters of Millennial (75%) and Gen X (75%) adults say they would be more interested in learning about AI’s current and future uses if they felt it would help them accomplish everyday tasks.

These data corroborate AIEDU’s strategy to focus on ground-level engagement with schools and educators to bring AI education to students who might otherwise miss out on the opportunity to explore and learn about the technology.