Artificial Intelligence Survey: Scientists' Views on Regulation

Nearly three-quarters (71%) of scientists strongly or somewhat support federal agency regulation of the use of generative AI. Only 15% strongly or somewhat oppose federal agency regulation, and 14% neither support nor oppose federal agency regulation of generative AI.

The graphs on the left shows responses of those that did not have a moderate answer choice. The graphs on the right shows responses of those that did have a moderate choice.

Overall, we find that when provided with a response option presenting a middle alternative regarding the extent to which the government should regulate generative AI technology for both question versions, the majority of scientists would endorse the middle alternative (76% and 59% for question versions 1 & 2, respectively) and the proportion in support of banning AI technology is reduced from 50% to 8% and from 55% to 28% in question versions 1 & 2 respectively. Likewise, support for not banning AI technology is also reduced (from 44% to 14% and from 38% to 9%, respectively, in the two question versions) when a middle option between outright banning vs. not banning AI is provided.

When the possible threats of generative AI are specifically mentioned (question version 2), more scientists approved the Federal Government banning generative AI deployment until comprehensive research on its potential consequences can be conducted, regardless of the provision of a middle response option: (50% to 55% when no middle option is provided, and 8% to 28% when a middle option is provided).

Additionally, scientists were somewhat more likely to avoid answering the question when not provided with the more moderate middle response option (from 2% to 6%, and from 4% to 7% across question versions 1 & 2, respectively).

The majority of respondents reported that academic institutions (88%), national professional associations (74%), journal editors (65%) and publishers (61%) should have primary responsibility for regulating generative AI in academic settings. Fewer scientists believe that supranational organizations (54%) and the federal government (56%) should have primary responsibility for regulating generative AI in academic settings.

Less than half scientists (42%) reported that there are guidelines in place in their university on the responsible use of generative AI. Less than one third (28%) of respondents reported there are guidelines at college level. Only 17% of respondents reported that their departments have guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI. Among those who reported that there are department-level guidelines on generative AI (n=28), most (65%) reported that the guidelines place restrictions only on students’ use of generative AI, while one-third (34%) reported restrictions on both faculty and students. Only 1% reported that their department guidelines placed restrictions only on faculty use of generative AI.

Most scientists (77%) reported that they have not received training or guidance from their universities on the ethical considerations associated with using generative AI in an educational or research context.