Awareness of artificial intelligence: diffusion of AI versus ChatGPT information with implications for entrepreneurship

This paper addresses the awareness of artificial intelligence across states in the United States. We uniquely create indices of Google internet search results for general AI awareness and about ChatGPT, normalizing alternatively by internet users and land area. An understanding of the awareness of AI would provide useful insights into regulatory attempts to monitor and guard AI technologies, and facilitate potential AI entrepreneurship. Econometric results to explain the drivers of AI awareness show that, ceteris paribus, more prosperous states had greater awareness about AI and ChatGPT. On the other hand, states with greater economic freedom had a lower awareness. States with relatively more men to women had lower AI awareness when internet search hits were normalized by area, but the reverse was true when they were weighted by internet users. States with a higher proportion of the elderly population were no different from other states, while those with greater urbanization had more AI/ChatGPT awareness when the internet hits were weighted by land area. Finally, states bordering Canada were no different from other states, while states bordering Mexico generally had a lower AI/ChatGPT awareness.