Psychological and demographic correlates and distal associations of latent profiles of beliefs about artificial general intelligence in high school students

This study examined how adolescents view artificial general intelligence (AGI) and its development, as well as psychological and demographic correlates and distal associations of those conceptualizations. Previous research has shown that people have mixed feelings about AI and that beliefs about AI are associated with specific attitudes towards it. As AI becomes increasingly central to technological progress and a more prominent part of everyday life, understanding attitudes toward it is vital. A total of 658 high school students participated in the study. A latent profile analysis was conducted based on two variables: the belief that AI will achieve a level of human thinking and the belief that emotions will guide it. The results identified four profiles: (i) “AGI Futurists”, who believe that AI will reach human-level thinking and be guided by emotions (16.3%); (ii) “AGI Functionalists”, who believe that AI will reach the level of human thinking but will not be guided by emotions (14.4%); (iii) “AGI Sceptics”, who believe that AI will neither achieve the level of human thinking nor be guided by emotions (20.2%); and (iv) “AGI Uncertain”, who are more balanced and uncertain on both counts (49.1%). These profiles showed differences in terms of gender, intellect, cynical hostility towards humans, tradition, benevolence, guilt, sadness, affection, parental expectations, cynical hostility towards AI, and beliefs about how quickly AI will achieve human-level thinking. The results underscore the importance of integrating psychological, emotional, and value-based variables to better understand how individuals relate to intelligent technologies.