FROM PROGRESS TO PANIC: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC FEAR IN RESPONSE TO THE RISE OF SUPERINTELLIGENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN ONLINE DISCOURSE

Abstract

People are getting more worried about AI as it goes from doing certain tasks automatically to becoming more independent and creative. This is especially true when it comes to the rise of Artificial Superintelligence (ASI). A lot of writing about technology has been about the pros and cons of AI, but we still don't know how regular people feel about these changes, especially when they're just hanging out online. This study looks at how people talk about their fear of superintelligent AI online. It uses the comments on the popular YouTube video "What Happens If AI Just Keeps Getting Smarter?" as an example.

The purpose of this study is to find out how people talk about AI in public online forums when they are afraid or unsure of what it means. We used a qualitative content analysis method that was based on the Integrated Fear Acquisition Theory and the idea of Sociotechnical Imaginaries. We coded, categorized, and developed themes from 2,000 English-language comments that were chosen for a specific reason.

The results show five main themes: the fear of being useless and powerless, the moral ambiguity of AI worship, the choice between giving up and fighting back, the media's role in making fear worse, and humor as a way to stay emotionally strong. People's responses were less about what they knew about technology and more about cultural stories, emotional triggers, and symbolic projections of control and identity.

The study's conclusion is that fear of AI is not just an irrational fear; it is a complex emotional response to changes in society as a whole. By collecting these stories, the study shows that we need to talk about AI development and governance in an open and culturally aware way. We need to know what people think about new technologies so that we can figure out how to talk about them, teach them, and make rules about them in the future..