Black Mirror Survey Study — Internet Rules Lab
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Research Study: Generative AI & Ethical Speculation<br>Who are you?<br>Casey Fiesler - Associate Professor in Information Science at CU Boulder and Director of the Internet Rules Lab<br>and assorted graduate students in the Internet Rules Lab studying AI ethics
What is the study about?<br>We want to know how people speculate about the future of AI! We're asking people to pitch their own Black Mirror-style science fiction story about generative AI (e.g., tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Midjourney). Your episode will be set in the near future and involve a situation where something goes wrong. There are no right or wrong answers - your imagination and instincts are exactly what we're looking for.
Who can participate?<br>Anyone who is 18 or older! You do not need any experience with generative AI. We want to hear from people across the full range of AI experience, from daily users to active resisters. You also don’t have to know anything about Black Mirror! You can also just think of this as science fiction more broadly.
What will I do?<br>The survey could take you anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour depending on how substantially you want to engage with the creative exercise! Here’s what you’ll be doing:<br>Pitch your episode — describe the setting, characters, and story of your near-future AI scenario, give it a title, and optionally create a short visual episode card using a provided template (like the one above!)
Reflect on your episode — answer questions about what inspired your scenario, how likely you think it is, and what better futures of AI you can imagine
Tell us about your relationship with AI — a few questions about your experience with and attitudes toward generative AI
Demographics — background questions (all optional)
You will also have the opportunity - optionally! - to agree to have your episode pitch shared on a public website, and - optionally! - to be credited in whatever way you choose.
Will I be compensated for participating?<br>We are not offering compensation for this survey. This is in part because paid online surveys are currently flooded with bots, and we'd rather have 20 thoughtful pitches from real humans who are genuinely interested than 200 responses written by AI. However, your episode pitch (if you choose!) may be featured on our public episode gallery, and you'll have the option to be informed about our findings. Also science! However we also totally understand if you choose not to participate.<br>Will you own my story?<br>(Adding this because I was asked this question!) You are not transferring any intellectual property rights as part of this study - you own the copyright in anything that you write. Your responses may be (as laid out in the consent form) included as part of scientific publications, but you are of course still free to use your own ideas what what you create however you like as well. And you are also welcome to skip components of the survey should you want to keep some ideas to yourself. If you have more specific questions about this, please feel free to ask!
Is this anonymous?<br>By default, yes! We will not collect your name or any contact information as part of the main survey. However, at the end, you will be asked if you would like to share your episode pitch publicly and if so if you would like to be credited in whatever way you choose. You can also optionally provide an email address if you'd like to be informed about any publications or other materials from this study - this is stored separately from your survey responses and cannot be linked back to your answers.
So how can I participate?<br>Click the link below to go directly to the survey. You'll read a consent form first, and if you agree to participate, you'll proceed to the survey. You can skip any questions you don't want to answer!<br>And please consider sharing this link with anyone you think might be interested!<br>If you have any questions, feel free to email casey.fiesler@colorado.edu<br>Link to Survey!