From AlphaGo to ChatGPT

Abstract

AI is a transformative force in the digital age. The swift rise of generative AI technology, particularly with ChatGPT launched in Nov 2022, has sparked global interest. We hold technology to be best understood as a quasi-social movement that is mobilising symbolic and material resources for societal change. We are tracing this mobilisation effort for AI on three variables: the flow of media salience and shifts in topicality and public awareness. Over the period 2000-2023, the paper traces the salience of AI relative to other tech issues such as nuclear power, genetics and climate change. For the period 2015-2023 we analyse key themes and public awareness of AI and how they shift over time. Results show similarities and differences between the UK and Korea, reflecting the different impact of two landmark events. While AlphaGo 2016 shocked Korea into FOMO, fear of the Nation missing out on new technology, ChatGPT 2023 alarmed the UK about TOOC, a potential technology-out-of-control. The paper shows how 2015-2023 is likely to be another hype cycle of AI coming to a turning point. AI is a global challenge but played out to local logic. The AI challenge is confronted with different dispositions in the UK and in Korea despite similar geo-political positions on AI.