Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of General Population Toward Utilizing ChatGPT: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based program, has been used by numerous users in various fields. This study aimed to determine to knowledge, attitude, and practices of the general population toward the use of ChatGPT. We invited the general population residing in Karachi, Pakistan from January to March 2023 in the study. The invitees participated in this study by filling out an online questionnaire through various social media platforms. The questionnaire assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the general population toward ChatGPT. We recruited a total of 525 participants for the study. The average age of the participants was 27.7 ± 0.46. The results indicated that 400 (76.2%) of the participants were familiar with ChatGPT. Although 51.4% of the participants did not use ChatGPT frequently, 50.1% believed that utilizing ChatGPT could potentially diminish their cognitive abilities. Nevertheless, a significant number of participants (40.0%) did not express concern about encountering privacy and security issues while using ChatGPT. The gender and education level were statistically significant predictors of the ChatGPT practices, while age and occupation did not had a significant impact. In conclusion, the study showed that a majority of participants were familiar with ChatGPT and believed in its ability to understand and respond to user queries. They also had confidence in the accuracy of information provided by ChatGPT, indicating a moderate level of trust. Interestingly, some participants expressed concerns about potential negative impacts on cognitive abilities when relying too heavily on ChatGPT.

Understanding and Perception of Automated Text Generation among the Public: Two Surveys with Representative Samples in Germany

“…Overall, the high frequency of the answer option "perhaps" along with the result that no statements sticked out with a clear tendency of being favored speak for a great uncertainty concerning the underlying mechanisms of ATG. Similarly, a current survey on ChatGPT found high proportions of indecision, too [54]. Some items also reflected different existing technological approaches of ATG, which do not necessarily contradict each other.…”

The public attitude towards ChatGPT on reddit: A study based on unsupervised learning from sentiment analysis and topic modeling

“…Therefore, all stakeholders are expected to cultivate social awareness and engage in public discourse regarding the ethical use and standards of technology. It is crucial to enhance the transparency, accountability, and fairness of ChatGPT [ 94 ].…”

The Effects of Assumed AI vs. Human Authorship on the Perception of a GPT-generated Text

“…The study was conducted in January 2022, when peoples' experience with and attitude toward ATG and NLG might not have been highly developed due to missing labeling requirements. In addition, there is evidence that people had no clear concepts regarding ATG and that this has not changed considerably since the release of ChatGPT 17,18 . Against the backdrop that it was a new experience for participants that an AI was able to write about a scientific topic to this extent, the findings are highly interesting.…”