People Devalue Generative AI's Competence but not Its Advice in Addressing Societal and Personal Challenges

The release of ChatGPT and related tools have made generative artificial intelligence (AI) easily accessible for the broader public. We conducted four preregistered experimental studies (total N = 3308; participants from the US) to investigate people’s perceptions of generative AI and the advice it generates on how to address societal and personal challenges. The results indicate that when individuals are (vs. are not) aware that the advice was generated by AI, they devalue the author’s competence but not the content or the intention to share and follow the advice on how to address societal challenges (Study 1) and personal challenges (Studies 2a and 2b). Study 3 further shows that individuals’ preference to receive advice from AI (vs. human experts) increases when they gained positive experience with generative AI advice in the past. The results are discussed regarding the nature of AI aversion in the context of generative AI and beyond.