Just believing that an AI is helping boosts your performance
Sometimes it seems like an AI is helping, but the benefit is actually a placebo effect -- people performing better simply because they expect to be doing so -- according to new research from Aalto University in Finland. The study also shows how difficult it is to shake people's trust in the capabilities of AI systems.
In this study, participants were tasked with a simple letter recognition exercise. They performed the task once on their own and once supposedly aided by an AI system. Half of the participants were told the system was reliable and it would enhance their performance, and the other half was told that it was unreliable and would worsen their performance.
'In fact, neither AI system ever existed. Participants were led to believe an AI system was assisting them, when in reality, what the sham-AI was doing was completely random,' explains doctoral researcher Agnes Kloft.
The participants had to pair letters that popped up on screen at varying speeds. Surprisingly, both groups performed the exercise more efficiently -- more quickly and attentively -- when they believed an AI was involved.
