In the Opinion Monitor Artificial Intelligence (MeMo:KI), every month around one thousand people answer a fixed catalogue of questions as well as situationally specific questions on the topic of AI. The project, which is being carried out in a joint research partnership between CAIS and HHU, visualises in a new data dashboard how the answers to these questions turn out. In this way, it provides a comprehensive picture of opinions on how intensively the German population engages with and evaluates new AI technologies.
The researchers at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf have been collecting data in a research partnership with the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) since May 2020: Respondents provide monthly information on whether they are for or against the use of AI in schools, financial institutions, healthcare or security authorities, among others. In addition, assessments of their own knowledge about AI are recorded and how often the respondents perceive media reports about AI. The data can now be easily analysed and directly visualised in a new dashboard: Do people’s assessments of AI use in road traffic differ depending on their different levels of knowledge about AI, i.e. on their self-attributed competence to be able to assess the topic in the first place? The dashboard shows: People who say they know more about AI are also more likely to welcome the use of AI in transport.
The results of the almost fifty areas that are queried and visualised in the dashboard can be explored and downloaded by citizens, experts and journalists themselves. Reliable data on the population’s opinion of artificial intelligence helps in many discussions to counter claims with numbers. Journalists can use the dashboard data to give the population’s opinions a special voice.
Data dashboards
In the wake of the Corona pandemic, digital dashboards have become an important tool for visualising results from data analyses at a glance and making them comprehensible. Viewers can, for example, follow developments over time or compare different groups with just a few clicks
The project
The Meinungsmonitor Künstliche Intelligenz [MeMo:KI] is a research partnership between the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum and the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf and is funded by the Mercator Foundation. In the project, public and published opinion on the topic of AI will be recorded. Three data sources will be used for this purpose:
- A monthly population survey of 1,000 randomly selected citizens aged 16 and over who use the internet at least occasionally.
- An analysis of the 34 print and online media with the highest coverage on the topic of artificial intelligence.
- A semi-annual analysis of Twitter communication with a special focus on the network structures between actors from business, politics, journalism, civil society organisations and private individuals.
All results are available to the public and are presented in a dashboard and in interactive graphics. All users can see for themselves how the discussion about artificial intelligence is being conducted in the public, in print and online media and in online social networks.
Get to know the project at the Science Night in Düsseldorf
Visit us at our joint stand with the Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy (DIID) at the “Night of Science” on 09 September 2022 in Düsseldorf and let us explain the new dashboard and the other data sources directly on site.
About the CAIS
The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has been providing long-term funding to the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum as a central institute for digitisation research since April 2021. By proposing evidence-based solutions, the CAIS contributes to shaping the digital transformation in the interest of the people. The CAIS was founded as a research college at the beginning of 2017 and has since been awarding fellowships to national and international guest researchers in the field of digitalisation research. The first research programme “Digital Democratic Innovations” started in October 2021, followed by the new research programme “Educational Technologies and Artificial Intelligence” in mid-2022. The research programmes interlink the disciplinary worlds of social sciences, humanities and computer science and test research results in practice.
