Abstract
Robotization and artificial intelligence (AI) are expected to change societies profoundly. Trust is an important factor of human–technology interactions, as robots and AI increasingly contribute to tasks previously handled by humans. Currently, there is a need for studies investigating trust toward AI and robots, especially in first-encounter meetings. This article reports findings from a study investigating trust toward robots and AI in an online trust game experiment. The trust game manipulated the hypothetical opponents that were described as either AI or robots. These were compared with control group opponents using only a human name or a nickname. Participants (N = 1077) lived in the United States. Describing opponents with robots or AI did not impact participants’ trust toward them. The robot called jdrx894 was the most trusted opponent. Opponents named “jdrx894” were trusted more than opponents called “Michael.” Further analysis showed that having a degree in technology or engineering, exposure to robots online and robot use self-efficacy predicted higher trust toward robots and AI. Out of Big Five personality characteristics, openness to experience predicted higher trust, and conscientiousness predicted lower trust. Results suggest trust on robots and AI is contextual and it is also dependent on individual differences and knowledge on technology.
Highlights
Robotization and artificial intelligence (AI) are expected to change societies profoundly (Borenstein, 2011; Liu and Zawieska, 2017; Makridakis, 2017)
The findings indicated that participants who were exposed to robots online gave more money to robots and AI opponents (β = 0.07, p = 0.046)
Trust is a crucial dimension in human–technology interaction
Summary
Robotization and artificial intelligence (AI) are expected to change societies profoundly (Borenstein, 2011; Liu and Zawieska, 2017; Makridakis, 2017). Robots and AI are expected to become more humanlike and to handle tasks normally performed by individuals (Goetz et al, 2003; Frey and Osborne, 2017). AI is likely to contribute to communicating, interacting, and empathizing tasks formerly performed by humans (Huang and Rust, 2018; Huang et al, 2019). We argue that analyzing trust in human–technology relationships is important to understand the transformative change brought on by AI and new-generation social robots.
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