Reuters Institute's Felix Simon: conversational AI has arrived as an information intermediary

_FelixSimon_ · x · 2026-10-29

In a thread with Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Felix Simon of the Reuters Institute summarizes findings on public attitudes toward AI.

Conversational AI systems have genuinely arrived as information intermediaries, marking a broader transformation of the information environment.
Bad news for publishers, but a silver lining: public attitudes haven't dramatically worsened amid growing AI use in news, and attitudes toward what the news industry does with AI have remained remarkably sticky.
People with regular personal AI experience are notably more optimistic about the technology and its societal impact — explaining the gap with the "all-in" crowd, though that gap doesn't mean everyone else is lazy or stupid; many remain indifferent or inexperienced.
Views on AI's societal impact are driven not just by opinions of the technology but of the actors trying to use it.

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