Bridging the Knowledge Gap in Artificial Intelligence: The Roles of Social Media Exposure and Information Elaboration

Abstract

This study examined how social media influence the knowledge gap between low and high socioeconomic status (SES) groups in artificial intelligence (AI), a highly debated scientific subject warranting immediate scholarly attention. A national survey of U.S. adults ( N = 965) was conducted. The results showed that education and social media exposure to AI information (SME) predicted greater AI knowledge, and SME did not moderate the SES-based AI knowledge gap. Furthermore, information elaboration moderated the association between SME and the AI knowledge gap. SME was associated with a smaller AI knowledge gap when information elaboration was high rather than low.