--- title: "Americans Absolutely Detest AI That Makes Decisions for Them" description: "\"Automated decision-making\" is being heralded as the next big thing  — but the people on the other side of it are not on board." date: "2024-09-08" modified: "2024-09-08" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/automated-ai-decision-making-survey" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai decision-making" - "automated decision-making" - "predictive ai" - "the digest" --- # Americans Absolutely Detest AI That Makes Decisions for Them !["Automated decision-making" is being heralded as the next big thing  — but the people on the other side of it are not on board.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## AI Do Not Consent So-called "[automated decision-making]()" is being [heralded as the next big thing]() — but it turns out that many consumers are disgusted by the idea of AI making choices for them. As the [Electronic Frontier Foundation recently highlighted](), a [Consumer Reports survey]() this summer found that a broad majority of American respondents aren't comfortable with AI making decisions about job hiring, banking, renting, medical diagnoses, and surveillance. Of the more than 2,000 people CR surveyed, a whopping 72 percent said they'd be "uncomfortable" having AI scan their faces and answers during job interviews, and 45 percent said they were "very uncomfortable" with the concept. When it comes to banking, meanwhile, roughly two-thirds of respondents said they weren't comfortable with financial institutions using AI to determine if they were eligible for loans. That same percentage said they were uncomfortable with landlords using AI to decide whether they were eligible as renters, and nearly 40 percent said they were "very uncomfortable" with that potential application. More than half of those 2,000 Americans also said they were uncomfortable with AI facial recognition surveillance, and about one-third of those respondents said they were "very uncomfortable" with it. When asked whether they would be comfortable with AI being used in medical diagnosing and treatment planning, half said they were not. And a whopping majority of the people surveyed by CR — some 83 percent — said they would want to know what data the algorithms making decisions about them was trained on, and 91 percent said they'd want to have a way to correct the data when it was wrong. Given that AI frequently screws up, [often in a discriminatory way](), they're probably not wrong to be concerned. ## Sector Selector Despite these rational and common-sense concerns, [some businesses]() — and even [some governments]() — are pushing full speed ahead to implement this nascent and error-riddled technology and save on human labor while they're at it. As the EFF notes, for instance, California's Gov. [Gavin Newsom announced earlier this year]() that the Golden State would be partnering with five AI firms to "test" generative AI within government agencies that cover transportation, public health, housing, and taxes. A similar project undertaken by New York City's housing department was [met with a successful tenant protest](). In the private sector, meanwhile, consultant groups like [McKinsey]() and firms like [Deutsche Bank]() seem all-in on the use of these new technologies that could easily slip into an [algorithmic version]() of the sort of [racist redlining policies]() financial institutions have [undertaken for decades](). While the public and private sectors would do well to heed these obvious and overwhelming preferences against the use of decision-making AI, it seems, if [recent history is any indicator](), that they'll charge ahead with these technologies regardless. **More on bad AI:** [*Government Test Finds That AI Wildly Underperforms Compared to Human Employees*.]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()