A survey from open data platform Directus reveals that the majority of developers are cautiously optimistic about the impact AI could have on the websites and software they produce. Despite concern about AI providing misinformation over half were intending to incorporate ChatGPT or Whisper API in their projects.

Motivated by the findings from the World Economic Forum in July 2022 that 60% of adults globally expect products and services that use AI will make their lives easier over the next 3-5 years, and that 50% say they trust companies that use AI as much as companies that don’t, Directus set out to discover whether developers felt the same way.

The basis of Directus Report 01 was a survey, distributed with the March 2023 issue of its monthly newsletter to probe the attitudes and perceptions of AI among its users and to discover how software engineers and developers are using AI and specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Whisper API.

The survey received 203 responses and participants worked in the following areas: building websites (76%), building apps (68%), building internal business tools (63%), integrations (41%), and games (8%). 

The majority of those surveyed had a positive attitude towards AI and only 5% were negative:

Just over half the respondents (51.5%)were either already experimenting with the ChatGTP/Whisper API in their projects or are likely to do so. A further 27.5% were undecided leaving only 20% unlikely to use this technology.

While only 1 in 5 developers were opposed to the use of ChatGPT, the majority of them expressed some reservations about AI with only 7% having no concerns at all.

The timing of the survey probably contributed to the high proportion (73%) concerned about misinformation thanks to both ChatGTP and Google's Bard being in the news for providing the wrong answer to questions during February 2023.

While half of respondents were concerned by ethics and over a quarter by "the unknowns" only 17% felt threatened by AI taking over jobs despite the fact that some estimates suggest that nearly half of jobs in the U.S. could be automated within the next few decades. This is presumably because developers recognise that once AI can take over grunt work it opens up opportunities for doing more interesting things.   

More Information

Directus Report 01

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