Majority of Americans trust whats online less than ever before: poll
The average American trusts less than half of what they see and read online, according to new research.A survey of 2,000 U.S.adults found that skepticism is at an all-time high when it comes to the internet.According to the results, Americans believe only 41% of what they consume online is totally accurate, fact-based and created by a real human. In fact, they also believe that 23% is completely false and purposely inaccurate or misleading, while 36% falls somewhere in between.Three-quarters say they trust the internet less today than ever before. Another 78% agree that the internet has “never been worse” when it comes to differentiating between what’s real and what’s artificial.To put things into perspective, the average American comes across information that they know or suspect was generated by AI about five times per week, with 15% indicating it’s more than 10 times. Social media posts (48%), news articles (34%) and chatbots (32%) are the top three most likely culprits when it comes to AI-generated or misleading content.In fact, those polled believe that 50% of the news stories and articles they come across online have some element of AI, whether it be images or the actual written content. Despite their suspicions, less than a third (31%) are confident in their ability to differentiate if a product or service review was written by an AI or an actual human being.The survey, conducted by Talker Research on behalf of World, even went so far as to test Americans on their ability to do just that. When shown a set of business reviews written by AI and humans, only three in 10 (30%) could correctly identify which was which. Of the three options that were written by people, two ranked at the very bottom of the list, demonstrating just how easy it is to be duped in this day and age.With 80% of Americans relying on reviews in some capacity when it comes to choosing a business to support, it’s no surprise that bot-written reviews (62%), AI customer serv...