More than half of Spaniards between 25 and 64 years old have no knowledge about Artificial Intelligence

53 % of Spaniards claim to know little or nothing about Artificial Intelligence , compared to 44% who claim to have some knowledge, according to a study carried out by Funcas and published in the latest issue of Panorama Social magazine. This is a conclusion drawn in the special issue entitled ‘Digitalisation and artificial intelligence: social opportunities and challenges’, by the professor of Sociology at the National University of Distance Education (UNED) María Miyar, who shows that the use of ChatGPT is still not widespread: two out of ten respondents have never heard of this application and almost two out of three (64%) have never used it.

It also shows that ChatGPT use is concentrated mainly among young men (25 to 34 years old), although it is not by any means the majority. One in five (21%) say they use it frequently, while among women of the same age the proportion does not reach one in ten (8%).

On the other hand, in all age groups, sex, educational level, knowledge and use of artificial intelligence considered in the analysis, a majority preference is observed for a regulation of artificial intelligence more oriented to controlling risks than to promoting the competitive development of this technology. In addition, five out of six respondents (83%) believe that controlling the development and operation of AI in aspects such as use, privacy and transparency should be the main objective of community regulation on AI and only 14% believe that the priority should be to promote investment and innovation in AI to maintain the international competitiveness of European economies.

Furthermore, 53% of respondents believe that the United States is in the lead, while 43% think that China is in first place. Only 3% identify Europe as the leader in this area.

SCREENS AND GENDER GAP

In another article, CSIC researchers Dulce Manzano and Héctor Cebolla analyse screen time consumption in Spain among 15-year-olds using data collected by the OECD in its PISA 2022 study. The authors study the time spent on social media, video games and educational or informational uses of the Internet and find few differences based on gender or the educational level of their parents.

They also draw attention to one result of their analysis: spending more than an hour a day on screens is detrimental to educational performance, equating students from different social backgrounds to the lowest. While between 20% and 25% of 15-year-olds do not spend any time on social networks during the week, many 15-year-olds spend a lot of time on this activity: 20% spend more than three hours a day on social networks and just over one in four could be spending seven hours or more.

As for video games, the analysis of the PISA 2022 data also reveals significant gender differences. The most common consumption pattern among boys is to spend between one and three hours a day playing video games. This is the case for 35% of boys. Another 25% have high or very high levels of consumption (three hours or more). Manzano and Cebolla also investigate the time that 15-year-old students spend studying with digital media and observe that around 30% of adolescents do not spend any time on this activity and another 35% spend an hour or so.

On the other hand, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute researcher Milagros Sáinz examines gender gaps in the perception of competencies in scientific-technological and digital fields. The author reviews the main research that explains why girls are less likely to choose studies in these areas and discusses the implications for their career decisions and professional future. In addition, she highlights the crucial role of families and the social environment in the formation of these perceptions.

Carmen Marta, professor of Journalism at the University of Zaragoza , investigates disinformation as a negative externality of the expansion of digital communication. After reviewing the main risks of this new communicative reality, she exposes the growing difficulties of making good journalistic practice prevail. The author affirms that only by equipping citizens with the necessary skills to sensibly analyze messages will they be able to manage in this context of informational disorder.

Finally, Aleix Calveras, professor of Economics at the University of the Balearic Islands, and Juan José Ganuza, professor of Economics and Business at Pompeu Fabra University, analyse the increase in inequality in many developed countries and explain how this increase in wage inequality, attributable to the disparity between companies and the unequal market structure, could be linked to the digital economy and the ‘winner-takes-all’ phenomenon on digital platforms. The authors also highlight the relationship between redistributive conflicts and outsourcing and the ‘gig economy’.