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We still don’t know how people are really using AI

View original at technologyreview.com
MIT Technology Review - Ai Research Title: We still don’t know how people are really using AI Date: 2026-08-18 10:06 Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/18/1142226/how-people-use-ai/ <div></div> <p>AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI regularly publish reports on how people are using products like Claude…
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  • Highly consequential decisions about AI's benefits and risks are currently being made on the basis of very limited data.

    60% confidence

  • Researchers cannot determine whether Anthropic's general-purpose AI system is used mostly for good or mostly for bad because that information is proprietary.

    60% confidence

  • There is no independent source to corroborate the usage data AI companies publish.

    60% confidence

  • No single company report tells the whole story of AI usage.

    60% confidence

  • Anyone making decisions based on AI usage data risks completely operating in the wild and making consequential decisions without knowing what's actually happening beyond company narratives.

    60% confidence

  • Anthropic's published research reflects its research teams' specific questions and interests, and it's important to support external independent research.

    60% confidence

  • Having the AI Observatory's bird's-eye-view analysis rather than leaving that information sectioned off into a separate report helps researchers understand the different uses more consistently.

    60% confidence

Data points we hold from this source

OpenAI · work related use share30 percent
OpenAI · conversations analyzed1500000 count
What we know · the intelligence behind this page
Live from the substrate
What we're seeing
AI Capital Boom Meets Valuation Jitters: Funding Surges While Bellwether Stocks Wobble
A dense wave of AI-sector funding (Socure, Stability AI, Emerald AI, Generalist AI, Gatik, Regent Craft and others closing rounds on the same day) and strong enterprise-automation earnings (UiPath raising full-year guidance) point to continued heavy capital deployment into AI infrastructure, fintech-adjacent AI, and agentic automation. Yet Palantir's stock fell even after winning the Army's high-profile TITAN contract, and commentary (e.g., the Alphabet bull case citing AI capex and regulatory risk) signals growing investor unease about whether current AI valuations and spending levels are sustainable.
Our read on the data ›
Signals we're tracking
Satellite-Terrestrial Network Integration Acceleration
Increased investment and launches in hybrid satellite-cellular networks across telecom industry; competitive responses from other carriers; regulatory activity around satellite spectrum; expansion of emergency/rural connectivity use cases
Patterns we're watching ›
Where sources disagree
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Both facts represent the same entity (JPMorgan Chase & Co.), same attribute (EPS), and same observation date (2025-12-31), which aligns with FY 2025 year-end reporting. Fact A explicitly states FY 2025 with EPS of 20.02 USD/share. Fact B has an unspecified fiscal period (N/A) but reports 4.63 USD, a significantly different value (4.3x lower). Given identical observation dates and the same metric, both facts appear intended to represent FY 2025 annual EPS. The conflicting values (20.02 vs 4.63) constitute a direct contradiction. The N/A period in Fact B suggests incomplete or corrupted metadata rather than legitimate time-period variation.
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