In July 2024 GKI conducted a representative survey of 1,000 people to measure public trust in artificial intelligence and its prevalence in Hungary. A central question was how much respondents trust content generated by AI.
Distribution of responses on trust:
- 22% consider AI-generated content to be reliable.
- 36% are skeptical of such content.
- 42% position themselves in the middle, neither clearly trusting nor distrusting.
The survey finds that people who use AI more often tend to trust it more. GKI notes the relationship can be bidirectional — low trust may reduce usage and lower usage may reinforce low trust. Nonetheless, as AI technology develops and the user base grows, societal trust is expected to rise.
Demographic patterns
The study identifies distinct differences across groups:
- Students are the only demographic group in which more people trust AI than distrust it.
- Active employees show a slightly negative balance of trust, with more distrust than trust.
- Retirees are generally skeptical.
Overall, trust declines with age: the older the respondent, the less likely they are to trust AI. The survey also indicates that men are slightly more distrustful than women.
GKI reweighted the responses onto a -100 to +100 scale, where -100 represents complete lack of trust, 0 indicates moderate trust, and +100 denotes very high trust.
International context and potential
According to research by KPMG and the University of Melbourne covering 47 countries, Hungary ranks seventh from the bottom in regular AI use, third from the bottom in frequency of workplace AI use, and last in the share of people who have taken AI training.
Despite these rankings, Hungarians display higher-than-average trust in artificial intelligence, suggesting considerable potential for wider AI adoption. The presence of this trust provides a foundation for businesses, educational institutions and government programs to promote AI-related skills, public awareness and practical applications through targeted training and support.
Authors of the analysis
- Mihályi Máté — research areas: economic policy, macroeconomics, labor market, social mobility, with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe.
- dr. Molnár László — research areas: regional differences, current environmental challenges and labor market trends.
