Abstract
<jats:p>The article examines the level of awareness, patterns of usage, and prevailing attitudes toward Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Russia. The study relies on data from an AI-related questionnaire incorporated into the 2024 round of the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring survey – Higher School of Economics (RLMSHSE) and Google/Ipsos Multi-Country AI Survey carried out in 2023. The findings indicate a moderate level of techno-optimism among Russians, coupled with infrequent usage of AI tools. About 32% of respondents reported no familiarity with AI, while 29% had only a vague understanding of the technology. The level of adoption of AI tools was noticeably low: only 6,2% of respondents identified as users, with regular users constituting a marginal 1%. Respondents aged 35 and younger (specifically the 18-25 cohort), men, respondents with higher education and residents of two metropolitan areas (Moscow and Saint Petersburg) and other major urban centers were more likely to know about, understand and use AI tools. Over half of the respondents (52.4%) believed that AI presented more opportunities than risks and a quarter (25.5%) expected opportunities and risks to balance out. Nevertheless, an overwhelming 90% expressed concern over potential AI-powered fraud. Regarding the labor market, the majority of respondents expected that AI would transform some jobs and industries within the next five years. However, more than half of the individuals in current employment doubted the ability of AI to perform their professional tasks as well as they did.</jats:p>