Young Australians open to buying products ChatGPT recommends

Kaycee Enerva

12th Jun 2023

Young Australians – including Millenials and Gen Z –  are more likely to buy a product based on ChatGPT recommendations, research from YouGov reveals. 

However, the study shows that just below half (48 per cent) of Aussies have heard of ChatGPT, and less than a quarter (23 per cent) have interacted with the AI chatbot.

ChatGPT is an advanced artificial intelligence language model developed by OpenAI to understand and generate human-like text based on the input it receives. As a large language model, it has been trained on a vast amount of text from the internet and can assist with answering questions, providing information, and engaging in conversations on various topics. Its goal is to help users by generating relevant and helpful responses conversationally. [I asked ChatGPT to write this paragraph as an example].

According to the study, men are much more likely than women to be aware of the AI chatbot, with 58 per cent having heard of it, compared to 39 per cent of females. 

When asked about buying a product recommended by ChatGPT, about three-quarters of Millennials (77 per cent) and Gen X (75 per cent) who have used ChatGPT say they would purchase a product based on recommendations from the AI chatbot. Ironically, only three-fifths of Gen Z (59 per cent) say they would do so. 

Among Australians who are aware of but have yet to interact with the AI chatbot so far, less than two in five (38 per cent) of Millennials and Gen Z would make a purchase based on ChatGPT recommendations, while just under a fifth (19 per cent) of Gen X say the same.

Leslie Loble, a professor at the University of Technology Sydney, who works on tech and education, told Reuters that as AI becomes ever more ubiquitous, it is important that such technologies are “well-designed, appropriately used and strongly governed.”

“We shouldn’t assume the technology is bad,” said Loble.