Zach Rossmiller, the chief information officer at the University of Montana, has recorded culinary details about every family Thanksgiving dinner for the past 15 years. In a Microsoft Word document, he tracks recipes, turkey weight, thawing time and even weather conditions, which impact his smoker.    More recently, he’s been using artificial intelligence to bring the archive to life. For instance, Rossmiller doesn’t like peeling potatoes. “We brainstormed how to make mashed potatoes with the skin on,” Rossmiller said.“We” is Rossmiller and ChatGPT. Almost four years after OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT, AI chatbots are now firmly rooted in many Montanans’ day-to-day tasks, according to a Montana Free Press-Eagleton poll of registered voters conducted in late August and early September. The poll’s language describes AI as a set of technologies that allow computers to perform tasks that have historically required human intelligence.  According to the poll, more Montanans use AI — and to some extent trust AI — for general searches, work and writing than for more intimate functions, like medical advice or companionship. Users remain skeptical of the technology’s broader impacts, too. Only about 12% believe AI has a “somewhat” or “very positive” impact on society. About 57% of registered voters in the state use AI for online searches at least several times a week. Another 29% said they use it for work tasks, and 26% reported using it for writing, like drafting emails, at the same frequency. But most respondents don’t believe AI provides very reliable information. Kristen Intemann, a professor at Montana State University who specializes in the ethics of emerging technologies, told Montana Free Press it’s hard to measure trust. “You see a lot of focus on whether AI is reliable for certain things or provides accurate information about things, but trust is really more than that,” Intemann said. “Because it also has this ethical component to it. We trust people who we think are good people.” National polling from the Pew Research Center has similarly found growing AI use accompanied by widespread skepticism about its accuracy and broader impacts.  “One of the reasons why people have very mixed feelings about AI is potentially that, although they think AI might be good at certain things, they’re very leery, particularly of some of these companies that they know are intending to profit off these technologies,” Intemann said.  That trepidation appears in the polling results. Almost half of registered voters in Montana said they believe AI’s impact on society is a mix of positive and negative. Another 40% said it is at least somewhat negative, while 12% said it is at least somewhat positive.  Industry leaders this week have also voiced concerns about the technology. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, the company that made the AI chatbot Claude, announced Saturday that he wants the AI industry to slow development and implement more safety mechanisms. Also this week, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, disclosed six reports of AI models’ “unexpected or concerning” behavior. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have largely dismissed concerns voiced by tech executives. Intemann did not categorically endorse or decry AI’s rapid integration into the lives of Montanans, which she called “a little bit dizzying.”  “It’s so hard, because so much is happening so fast that even when you make certain predictions about what may or may not happen, then a week later, you’re in another world,” Intemann said.  She encouraged Montanans to “learn a little bit more about how these technologies work.”  Intemann and Rossmiller both pointed out that in a geographically large state with a small population like Montana, AI could broaden access to expertise.  “That’s some of the hope, that it’s democratizing information more,” Intemann said. “It’s democratizing access to certain things, whether it’s mental health support or medical support or helping with agriculture.” But she also has concerns that communities might start to depend on AI too much. “Will there be an over-reliance on these technologies such that we don’t have the same quality of healthcare that other places might have?” Intemann said. To increase access and understanding at the University of Montana, Rossmiller has helped set up digital “sandboxes” for people across the university system to experiment with the technology. Personally, he said, he’s excited by the prospect of speeding up “remedial, silly” tasks so he can spend more time with his family. But he understands why others remain wary of the technology’s broader implications.  “Maybe it’s just the Montana in me, but I think people are cautious and a little leery,” Rossmiller said.  The post Montanans are using AI, but remain wary of its societal impact appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less