The fast advancement of artificial intelligence and its potential to cause catastrophic harm have reignited debate about how it should be regulated.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) spoke to people in different countries about their fears and hopes for the AI future as leading U.S. labs call for a coordinated slowdown of their cutting-edge work on the technology.
AI users worldwide showed various opinions, but a general tone of understanding the risks and growing more scared of threats prevailed.
Beside ancient buildings in central Rome, 43-year-old architect Frida Awrohum said she tries to use AI tools in her professional life because they offer fresh ideas.
"But privately it still scares me," she confided, adding she prioritizes the "human" aspect of her work.
Diego Sermattei, 18, said AI can be very helpful for students like himself, because "you just have to look something up and it finds it for you right away."
"Sometimes when I share my personal life with AI, I think, would there be any human who could respond to me as well as AI does?" said 18-year-old student Astrid Anindya.
Anindya uses several chatbots to find information and to help her use effective wording when applying for jobs.
"Sometimes they give wrong information. So, usually I do a cross-check, from ChatGPT to Gemini," she said, referring respectively to OpenAI's and Google's flagship products.
"AI is here. We unleashed the beast," said Maliyka Muhammad, a 46-year-old analyst for New York State, who thinks "a consortium of people" would be best to regulate it.
San Francisco software engineer Lucy Pen, 30, has already seen her job shift from writing code herself to having AI agents write it for her too.
"Maybe in the future they don't need me to give commands to AI anymore," she said.
Brian Diaz, a 26-year-old nurse in New York, said that "humanity has to develop," even though in the wrong hands, AI could cause harm.
"You're either gonna be with it, or you're gonna get left (behind)," Diaz said.
On the streets of Shanghai, 42-year-old Xie Zongbo said that "no new technology develops completely smoothly."
"We will slowly learn to minimize its negative impacts, so its positive aspects can better serve humanity and offer greater convenience," he said.
Jenny, a 50-year-old pharmaceutical worker who declined to give her surname, said that "businesses cannot possibly regulate themselves."
Instead, they must be restrained through policies and laws, she said.
Businessperson Yang Shuai, 42, feared that future generations would "face real hardship" due to hurdles encountered when searching for jobs.
Advertising student Catalina Cruz, 19, thinks AI is "making us dumber" because "people aren't able to think for themselves anymore."
"There's also the environmental issue, because it uses too much water," she said, saying the technology "definitely needs to be regulated."
But Constanza Medel, a 29-year-old occupational therapist, sees AI "as a clear benefit as long as you take the proper precautions."
Train driver-in-training Romain Hamel, 34, said in Paris that AI was developing so quickly that "we don't have enough perspective yet."
"We're not putting enough barriers in place at the moment, we're letting things happen," with the race driven by the U.S. and China.
"I don't want to say there's not enough regulation, because in Europe we regulate a lot, and I think more frameworks should be introduced to prevent abuse, or us losing control over it."
"Like the internet, each country has its own authority, but we still need something global," said software engineer Tal Reinfeld.
Video creator Yotam Katzor, 32, worried about what would happen when humans were no longer the smartest thing on Earth.
"If it wants, it can finish us. But we still have the power to win," through regulation, he said.
Atsukuni Tabata, 56, who works at an advertising company, said it was "scary" not knowing what AI would do as it "accumulates more and more data."
But part-time service industry worker Konno Hazuki, 29, does not feel she is "about to be replaced by AI."
"Because AI doesn't have emotions, there are things it just can't offer customers," Hazuki said.
