On average, people use ChatGPT much less frequently than commonly believed, with psychopaths using AI the most — a study reports. This was stated by American scientists.
People use artificial intelligence much less frequently than commonly believed — on average, AI services account for only 1% of students' web activity and 0.44% of regular internet users' activity. This conclusion was reached by researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of California, Davis (USA), who analyzed the browsing history of 954 individuals over three months.
The researchers examined 4.1 million websites visited by students and 9.9 million websites in the sample of regular users. The most popular AI tool was ChatGPT (which accounted for 85% of all visits to AI platforms among students and 83.5% among other participants). At the same time, most people hardly use artificial intelligence, with only a small group of users demonstrating high activity.
AI is used most actively by individuals with so-called dark personality traits — Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Among students, those who scored high on the scales of narcissism and psychopathy stood out, while in the overall sample, the connection was predominantly with Machiavellianism. The researchers suggest that people with such traits may view AI as a tool for gaining a competitive advantage.
Moreover, the scientists found that individuals' self-assessments of AI usage frequency only moderately correlated with actual data from browsing history (correlation coefficient — 0.329). This means that subjective reports explain only 11% of actual activity, raising questions about the reliability of many studies based solely on surveys.
The analysis showed that before turning to AI, students most often visited search engines and educational platforms (31.9% of visits), while after using AI, they transitioned to websites related to computers and electronics (45.6%) and education (42.1%). For regular users, educational and professional resources dominated both before and after working with AI.
Demographic factors — age, ethnicity, and political views — showed no systematic connection with AI usage frequency in any of the studies. The only exception was a weak trend indicating that male students used AI slightly more often than females, as well as a small positive correlation between income and AI usage frequency.
Earlier, according to results from another study, it was revealed that individuals with pronounced psychopathic traits and a strong fear of missing out (FoMO) significantly more often engage in online political activity — commenting on news, sharing political content, and participating in discussions on social media.
