Media cultivation of public outlooks on artificial general intelligence: Diverging cognitive and emotional pathways of news and entertainment media

Abstract

Building on first-order and second-order cultivation frameworks, we examine how exposure to news and entertainment media portrayals of artificial intelligence (AI) is associated with public perceptions of quantitative estimates of AI development and future outlooks on artificial general intelligence (AGI). The survey data of 713 respondents in the United States were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. Findings showed that exposure to AI news is associated with higher estimates of AGI development and more hopeful emotional responses, though exposure to negatively framed AI news elicited fear and pessimism. Science fiction content was not associated with quantitative estimations but showed a positive association with emotional optimism. These results suggest that both news and entertainment science fiction media narratives contribute to the ambivalent yet meaningful construction of audience imaginaries of AGI.