What Americans Know About AI, Cybersecurity and Big Tech

Digital literacy is widely seen as an essential skill. But Americans’ understanding of digital topics varies notably depending on the subject. For example, majorities of US adults know what cookies on websites do and can identify a secure password. Far fewer can recognize an example of two-factor authentication – a cybersecurity practice that makes signing into online accounts more secure. Overall, Americans answer a median of five out of nine questions correctly on a digital knowledge survey that Pew Research Center conducted among 5,101 US adults from May 15 to May 21, 2023. The questions span a range of topics, including cybersecurity practices, facts about major technology companies, artificial intelligence and federal online privacy laws. Concerning cybersecurity, 87% of U.S adults can correctly identify which password – out of four choices – is the most secure option; 67% know that the purpose of cookies is to track visits and activity on a website; and 48% can correctly identify an example of two-factor authentication from a series of pictures. Concerning artificial intelligence, 42% know a deepfake is a seemingly real image, video or audio of something that didn’t occur; and 32% know large language models, such as ChatGPT, produce answers based on word patterns and relationships they previously learned from text pulled from the internet. Concerning Big Tech, 80% know Elon Musk was running Tesla and Twitter in April 2023; 77% know Facebook changed its company name to Meta.