Artificial Intelligence across Europe: A Study on Awareness, Attitude and Trust
This research addresses public perceptions of AI in Europe to inform governance and policy-making, but it is incremental as it applies existing survey methods to a new regional context.
The study surveyed 4,006 European citizens across eight countries to assess their awareness, attitude, and trust in AI, finding that while self-assessed competency is low, over half have a positive attitude, but contradictions may hinder trust and inclusive policies.
This paper presents the results of an extensive study investigating the opinions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) of a sample of 4,006 European citizens from eight distinct countries (France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Sweden). The aim of the study is to gain a better understanding of people's views and perceptions within the European context, which is already marked by important policy actions and regulatory processes. To survey the perceptions of the citizens of Europe we design and validate a new questionnaire (PAICE) structured around three dimensions: people's awareness, attitude, and trust. We observe that while awareness is characterized by a low level of self-assessed competency, the attitude toward AI is very positive for more than half of the population. Reflecting upon the collected results, we highlight implicit contradictions and identify trends that may interfere with the creation of an ecosystem of trust and the development of inclusive AI policies. The introduction of rules that ensure legal and ethical standards, along with the activity of high-level educational entities, and the promotion of AI literacy are identified as key factors in supporting a trustworthy AI ecosystem. We make some recommendations for AI governance focused on the European context and conclude with suggestions for future work.