AI and politics: Do political ideologies influence people's views on AI?

Generative artificial intelligence (AI), with its potential to disrupt several industries, including the art industry, has been a controversial subject of discussion in mainstream newspapers. To understand the impact of political ideologies on this controversy, this study compares concerns about AI-generated art between liberals and conservatives. Data comprised comments of readers of the Daily Mail and the Guardian on a news story about an award-winning AI artwork at the Colorado State Fair, a topic that has stirred up controversies over various AI-related issues. Keyword analysis was conducted to indicate the overall concerns and to identify similarities and differences in opinions between the readers of both newspapers. A thematic analysis was then performed, and the frequencies of each theme within the two data sets were also examined to highlight the perspectives of each group of readers. Overall, in contrast to much existing literature, the findings indicate that the similarities noticeably outweigh the differences, and the differences are not immediately relevant to AI. Instead, the readers used the topic of AI as a segue to talk about other concerns, suggesting that political beliefs about AI are not yet entrenched.