In August 2023, the AAMC Center for Health Justice conducted a national poll of U.S. adults to learn about their attitudes towards the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in their daily lives. The following data comes from a Morning Consult online poll of 2,197 adults, weighted to approximate a nationally representative sample based on gender, age, education, race, and region. These polling snapshots were originally shared on social media. Follow the AAMC Center for Health Justice on LinkedIn and X.
Americans' Familiarity with AI
According to a recent nationally representative poll conducted by the AAMC Center for Health Justice, most Americans (71%) say they know little or nothing about AI, and 9% have not even heard of it.
The good news? Just like you don’t have to be a mechanic to drive a car or have a computer science degree to use your laptop and the internet, you don’t have to be an expert to use or leverage artificial intelligence. From bringing efficiency and convenience to everyday tasks to assisting maternal health care providers in identifying and predicting risk in maternal health, AI and related tools, like natural language processing (NLP), are already part of society, the health care system, and our personal lives.
AI and Racial Inequality
As AI gains acceptability across a range of sectors and uses, there are still some areas where human input is preferred, like addressing racial inequality and inequities. According to our recent nationally representative poll of Americans, almost two-thirds of respondents think racial inequities should be addressed primarily by humans and not AI. This doesn’t mean that developers of AI and its subfields like NLP are absolved from ensuring that their products and applications do not exacerbate inequities and compound current health care crises. The dismal state of maternal health is one such crisis in the U.S. that is rife with unfair, avoidable, and preventable adverse health outcomes disproportionately affecting historically marginalized communities.
Hope for AI's Future
Almost two-thirds of Americans are confident in scientists’ ability to use AI to understand and improve human health, according to a recent nationally representative poll conducted by the AAMC Center for Health Justice. This confidence indicates a level of trust that must first be built and earned. The responsible use of AI and its subfields like NLP can promote transparency and trust to tackle health care challenges, like adverse maternal health outcomes
Given longstanding racial, ethnic, and economic inequities, being intentional about creating and leveraging this technology equitably and responsibly is crucial when providing maternal health care. The AAMC Center for Health Justice recently released a crowd-sourced set of foundations that can guide the responsible use of AI’s NLP. The foundations highlight embracing the voices of women and birthing people, holding on to the empathy and emotion of this meaningful time, and centering the agency and autonomy of individuals.