Even as Silicon Valley races to build more powerful artificial intelligence models, public opinion on the other side of the Atlantic remains decidedly skeptical of the influence of tech CEOs when it comes to regulating the sector, with the vast majority of Britons worried about the safety of new AI systems. The concerns, highlighted in a new poll shared exclusively with TIME, come as world leaders and tech bosses--from U.S. Vice President JD Vance, France's Emmanuel Macron and India's Narendra Modi to OpenAI chief Sam Altman and Google's Sundar Pichai--prepare to gather in Paris next week to discuss the rapid pace of developments in AI. The new poll shows that 87% of Brits would back a law requiring AI developers to prove their systems are safe before release, with 60% in favor of outlawing the development of "smarter-than-human" AI models. Just 9%, meanwhile, said they trust tech CEOs to act in the public interest when discussing AI regulation. The survey was conducted by the British pollster YouGov on behalf of Control AI, a non-profit focused on AI risks.

I'm part-way through writing a book about the history of fake news, so I'm well aware that people making stuff up is not new. But what is new is the reach that troublemakers have, whether their actions are deliberate or accidental. Social media and the wider web changed the game for mischief-makers, and made it easier for the rest of us to be inadvertently hoodwinked online (see: the odd "Goodbye Meta AI" trend that I wrote about this week for the Guardian). The rise of generative AI since the release of ChatGPT in 2022 has also supercharged the risks. While early research suggests our biggest fears about the impact of AI-generated deepfakes on elections are unfounded, the overall information environment is a puzzling one.

YouGov is an international online research data and analytics group. Our mission is to offer unparalleled insight into what the world thinks. Our innovative solutions help the world's most recognized brands, media owners and agencies to plan, activate and track their marketing activities better. At the core of the YouGov platform is an ever-growing source of consumer data that has been amassed over our twenty years of operation. We call it living data.

YouGov is an international market research and data analytics group. Our mission is to supply a continuous stream of accurate data and insight into what the world thinks, so that companies, governments and institutions can better serve the people and communities that sustain them. We have the best data and the best tools. We continuously challenge conventional approaches to research, and we disrupt our industry to ensure that our clients always get the best solutions. We are driven by a set of shared values.

Is consumer sentiment around AI and automation vital to your brand? Join this VB Live event where research, data, and analytics leaders share the current global consumer outlook on AI, reveal key findings from YouGov's International Technology Report 2021, and more. Even as AI takes center stage in daily consumer life, sentiments about the technology are tremendously divided. Separating the hype from the reality is a chore even for business leaders in the thick of it. On top of that, the moral and ethical questions that the technology raises as it comes into the spotlight are tremendously provocative.

Working from home increases your risk of making mistakes, a study examining the quality of chess play has found. The standard was significantly worse when players competed online instead of face to face, researchers discovered, suggesting that not being in the office is harmful to productivity. They monitored nearly 215,000 chess moves made by players during in-person and digital tournaments, checking them against what was the best play by using artificial intelligence. Such was the impact on performance when playing remotely, it would have taken Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, the world's top-rated player, to the same rating as the current 20th-best player, according to Dainis Zegners from Rotterdam School of Management, one of the study's co-authors. He said the research showed that remote working could hinder people's ability to carry out mentally-intense tasks while alone.

One in three men would be interested in having sex with a robot, if it was technically possible and would feel real, according to a survey conducted by YouGov in Germany. Women were less interested in the idea, with just a fifth of women who responded to the poll saying they could imagine having sex with a robot. The data about possible sexual relationships with robots was gathered as part of a wider survey looking at German attitudes to sex. It found that Germans are'very ready' to try new sexual experiences. Among those that responded to the poll 17 percent had used role play in a sexual scenario, 16 percent had participated in a threesome, and 6 percent had tried partner swapping.

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