AI widens digital divide in Switzerland

Artificial intelligence widens the digital divide Keystone-SDA

Around half of the Swiss population uses artificial intelligence (AI). But the new technology is also widening the digital divide in Switzerland, according to a survey on internet use by Swiss households.

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According to the survey on internet usage conducted by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), around half of people in Switzerland use artificial intelligence. Two out of five people use AI to create texts or images, the FSO said on Friday. Among 15 to 24-year-olds, the figure is as high as four out of five. The survey was conducted in spring.

The systems are most frequently used for private purposes (38%), followed by professional purposes (31%). In schools and universities this figure reaches 75%.

AI tools have only been available to the general public for three years. Nevertheless, the technology is spreading rapidly. Among those who use AI tools, half use a chatbot or similar on a daily basis, 70% once a week.

AI – what’s that?

The in-depth survey also revealed that the use of generative AI tools varies greatly depending on the socio-demographic profile and that existing inequalities in the use of digital technologies are being exacerbated by AI.

For example, use decreases sharply with age. While 79% of young people say they would work with AI tools, only 28% in the 55 to 64 age group would do so. People with a higher level of education would also use AI at an above-average rate.

Men of the older generation are more likely to be frequent users compared to women. There are no gender-specific differences in the age groups under 30.

Despite its rapid spread, AI is not yet in widespread use. According to the survey, the reasons for not using AI vary: a third of the population see no benefit, 7% have data protection and security concerns as well as a lack of skills, and 2% said they were unaware of its existence.

123 million daily ChatGPT users

The American software company OpenAI presented the chatbot ChatGPT to the public in November 2022. In the last three years, the number of people using AI tools has grown rapidly. ChatGPT reported around 123 million daily users worldwide this year.

Chatbots are based on powerful language models, known as large language models (LLM), which are trained with a wide range of content that is publicly available on the internet. LLM models have continued to improve since 2022. AI tools are now among the key applications for all major technology companies.

However, bots and tools still do not deliver reliable and correct results for corresponding queries in all cases. This is mainly due to the fact that answers from LLMs are based on probabilities and not on knowledge. Accordingly, it is generally recommended that AI tools should only be used in a supportive capacity and that the results should be critically scrutinised.

Increasingly problematic content

The FSO survey also confirmed that the population is increasingly confronted with disinformation, hate messages and fraud online. The problems have increased significantly in the last two years. “This trend illustrates the increasing spread of problematic online content and the rise in risks and dangers associated with internet use,” say FSO.

For example, over 60% of people now receive fraudulent messages such as phishing emails. The proportion of people who have come across “false or dubious” content online is almost identical. In all, 42% of respondents have been confronted with hostile or derogatory messages.

Adapted from German by AI/sb

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