Prolific.com survey on AI pause

I conducted a survey on Prolific.com on whether US citizens support a pause on further AI development. 1484 people responded.

Analysis

Overall more people are against a pause than for, but there is significant mainstream political support for a pause on further AI research in the United States.
Age groups below 25 and 25-34 are most in support of a pause, followed by those above 65.
Women are significantly more in support of a pause than men.
People who are unemployed and part-time employed are significantly more in support of a pause than people with full-time employment.
People of black and mixed ethnicity are most in support of a pause, by significant margin. People of Asian ethnicity are least in support of a pause, by significant margin.
Based on the comments provided by people in the form
- Job loss is the number one people reason people support an AI pause.
- "Safety concerns" are the second reason, although many people have not been specific what this means to them.
- Significant number of people explicitly say they believe in the possibility of AI takeover and support AI pause for this reason.
- Significant number of people support a pause if it was conducted worldwide, but do not support US unilaterally pausing because of concerns China would catch up.
I strongly recommend reading the comments in full, there are hundreds of comments on an AI pause, I found a few of them insightful. Full response data is shared below
I also recommend doing your own data analysis and drawing your own conclusions. Full response data is shared below.
Future surveys could include questions on more narrow demographics such as religion, STEM background, political leaning and influential people they defer to on this topic.

Pause support (Overall)

Pause support (Age)

Pause support (Sex)

Pause support (Ethnicity)

Pause support (Status)

Raw data

Link to full response data

(Explicit consent was obtained via google form before publishing this.)

Prolific.com study details (filled before starting survey)

Study Name: Do you support a pause on further AI research? (Single question survey)
Study Description: Only one question in this survey: Do you support a pause on further AI research?
Data collection type: Survey
Which devices can participants use to take your survey: Mobile, Tablet, Desktop
Does your study require any of the following: No (No Audio, No Camera, No Mic, No Software Download)
Content warning: None
What's the URL of your study: (link to google form here)
Does your study have a limit of participants that can enter at the same time?: Don't limit participant access (recommended)
Recording Prolific IDs, How do you want to record IDs?: A question in my study
Custom screening: No
Completion paths, How do you want to process submissions?: Automatically approve the submission and pay the participant
Completion paths, redirect URL: (this code and URL was inserted into the completion of the google form)
Recruit participants: Find new participants on Prolific
Participants: 1500 (study was later stopped before 1500 participants, as finding old mixed and other males was taking too long)
Credentials required: No
Location (of participants): USA
Study distribution: Representative sample (Distribute your study based on UK or USA census data)
Representative sample criteria: USA, Factors: Sex, Age, Ethnicity (Simplified US Census)
Estimated time to complete survey: 1 minute
Payment: 0.10 GBP per participant
Total cost: 200 GBP (150 GBP to participants, 50 GBP to Prolific.com)

(~10 responses out of ~1500 were rejected due to minor issues with the approval system)

Prolific.com study details (after completing survey)

Eligible participants: 63773 of 176424
Median time (to complete survey): 1 minute 22 seconds

Google form details (created before starting survey)

Title: Do you support a pause on further AI research?
Text:

Background material OPTIONAL. 
https://youtube.com/shorts/n79CNY_NpBw?si=W5WxEnsQw3crKtEn

(About video)
- (Video title: AI Experts on extinction risk)
- (Video Length: ~1 min)
- (Video previw opens in google form, no need to visit youtube to watch the video.)
Text:

Background material OPTIONAL. 
https://youtube.com/shorts/3Q4SXpY32TU?si=MwCaXDY33wGTh-8x

(About video)
- (Video title: AI Experts on extinction risk)
- (Video Length: ~1.5 min)
- (Video previw opens in google form, no need to visit youtube to watch the video.)
Text:

Background material OPTIONAL. 
Letters signed by experts
https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/
https://aistatement.com/

Checkbox question: (required)

Data privacy and consent
Data that will NOT be published publicly: Name, Prolific ID, Personally identifying info (email ID, phone, social media ID, home address)
Data that will be published publicly: Responses to survey below, Fluent languages, country of birth/residence/citizenship, age, sex, ethnicity, student/employment status
[ ] Yes, I consent

Multiple choice (single answer) question (required)

I support a pause on further AI research
[ ] Strongly agree
[ ] Weakly agree
[ ] Neither agree nor disagree / No opinion on this topic
[ ] Weakly disagree
[ ] Strongly disagree

Short answer question: Prolific ID (required)
Paragraph answer question: What are your thoughts on this topic? (OPTIONAL)

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