Young People and Social Representations on Artificial Intelligence in Peru and Colombia

Abstract

The social representations of a future in which artificial intelligence is used for solving complex problems might be dazzling. However, in Latin America this perspective seems less dazzling since these technologies have just started to be used recently. For this research, social representations are conceived as the set of different kinds of knowledge, common sense, and ideas each person uses for understanding daily-life contexts and situations. Considering this, this research was designed using a socio-constructivism framework, and for creating this qualitative approach, phenomenological design. For data collection, semi-structured interviews were implemented to a sample of 13 Peruvian and 9 Colombian students. It had the aim of answering the following questions: what do young people think about technologies related to artificial intelligence? What do they know about it? How is artificial intelligence connected to their lives? What are they afraid of regarding artificial intelligence? What are their expectations about it? Data analysis was carried out through ATLAS.ti qualitative analysis software codification. Findings have shown students consider artificial intelligence as intelligent machines capable of reasoning and problem-solving. Furthermore, some stated artificial intelligence is absent from their lives, while others stated it is present in their daily lives every day. Besides, another group of young people stated artificial intelligence will turn out to be an embodied entity in human lives, even getting over humans. We concluded there are different research and action courses to be deployed for approaching their expectations, interests, and worries.