Artificial Intelligence (AI) advice is as influential as humans', but positive crowd views still overpower.
In a study, researchers found that machines that make recommendations-or AI experts-were as influential as human experts when the AI experts recommended which photo users should add to their online business profiles. However, both AI and human experts failed tobudge themif their feedback was negative and went against popular views among other users, said S. Shyam Sundar, a professor of Media Effects.
Because people are increasingly using social media to look for feedback, studies suggest that expert opinions and thebandwagon effect(从众效应) may be important factors in influencing decisions. According to Jinping Wang, a doctoral candidate in mass communication and first author of the study. "Nowadays, we often turn to online platforms for opinions from other people-like our peers and experts-before making a decision, " said Wang. AI experts are often less expensive than human experts and they can also work 24 hours a day, which, Wang suggests, might make them appealing to online businesses.
The researchers also found that the AI'sgroup status(群体地位) -in this case, national origin was pointed out-did not seem to affect a person's acceptance of its recommendation. Among human experts, however, an expert from a similar national origin who offered a negative opinion of a photograph tended to be more influential than a human expert from an unknown country who offered a similar negative rating of a photograph.
While findings that suggest group status may not affect whether a person values the view of AI experts sound like good news, Sundar suggests that the same culturalbiases(偏见) might still be at work in AI experts for they could be hidden in the programming and training data.
"It can be both good-and bad-because it all depends on what you feed AI, " said Sundar. "While it is good to believe in AI's ability totranscend(超越) cultural biases, we have to keep in mind that if you train the AI on pictures from one culture, they could give misleading recommendations on pictures meant for use in other cultural contexts."
