Poll: AI chatbots used by two-thirds of New Yorkers even if they don't trust the results
A new Siena poll shows two-thirds of New Yorkers use AI chatbots, with 44% of them saying they use AI at least weekly. Credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images/NurPhoto
Two-thirds of New Yorkers use AI chatbots, with 44% of them saying they use AI at least weekly and almost half saying their usage has increased in the past year alone, according to a new Siena Poll.
The poll found 43% of New Yorkers believe the disadvantages of artificial intelligence are "too great," while their trust in traditional search engines exceeds their trust in AI-driven searches. The poll also found 20% of New Yorkers pay for an AI subscription — with ChatGPT leading Gemini, Copilot and other commercial models.
The poll, conducted March 3-14 with 810 respondents, also uncovered other trends.
While 87% of New Yorkers told pollsters they’d seen AI-generated content within the past 30 days — and 92% said they’d seen content that appeared to be AI-generated — 56% of AI users admitted they double-check AI results. And familiarity with AI chatbots also varied wildly by age, with 56% of respondents under age 35 saying they are very familiar with chatbots, while just 6% of those 65 and older say they are.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Two-thirds of New Yorkers use AI chatbots, with 44% of them saying they use AI at least weekly, according to a new Siena Poll.
- People over 50 don’t trust AI or search engines at double the rate of those under 50.
- More than half are double-checking outputs — an encouraging point for critical thinking, said Mitch Kase, executive director of the Hofstra University Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Assessment.
Those over age 50 don’t trust AI or search engines at double the rate of those under 50 — 32% vs. 16%.
Jeff Miller, 55, of East Hampton, said he doesn’t use a chatbot. In an interview Saturday outside the Riverhead Target, he said he prefers to conduct his own research and worries about the accuracy of AI programs.
“My impression of it is it kind of lumps everything to give you a summary, and I don’t know how truthful it may be,” Miller said. He recalled reading an article about a missing woman that failed to mention she had been found dead. The story, he said, was written by AI.
Emrah Ogredik, 38, of Holbrook, said Saturday he regularly used ChatGPT in place of Google for everyday queries.
"Simple questions, I am asking what I don’t know," he said in an interview outside the Patchogue Best Buy.
Those inquiries, he said, range from recommending tires for his Tesla to finding news about in his native Turkey.
"It makes life easier. ... All my friends use it," he said, though he conceded the responses aren’t always reliable.
"Not very good answers, but enough for me," he said.
"Four years after ChatGPT was released to the public, AI is creeping into everyday life, whether you use a dedicated chatbot app or website, or use AI features embedded in other spaces," Travis Brodbeck, Siena University associate director of data management, said in a statement announcing the poll results.
"Almost every New Yorker, regardless of background, encounters AI-generated content. Like various forms of emerging technology, we see gaps in behaviors and attitudes between the youngest and oldest New Yorkers," he added. "These age-related differences risk creating a new element to the ‘digital divide’ where the ability to discern AI content and use AI tools is a new skill required in the digital age."
Mitch Kase, executive director of the Hofstra University Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Assessment, said he saw some positives in the poll. "The fact that more than half of users say they double-check AI outputs is actually encouraging. That's critical thinking in action and what we want to promote," he said in a statement on Wednesday.
"What I see in this data isn't a public that's afraid of AI it's that people are already using it and want help making sense of it," Kase wrote.
"If we’re letting TikTok, Facebook and AI determine this kind of stuff, you’re losing ... two very valuable skills: the skill to critically think and the ability to make decisions based on that critical thinking," Martin R. Cantor, director of the Long Island Center for Socio-Economic Policy, told Newsday.
Kylie Prieto, 17, of Hampton Bays, said Saturday in Riverhead that she uses ChatGPT to help create study guides for school and double checks the information the chatbot gives her.
Her one reservation for using the technology? “It’s bad for the environment,” she said. Data centers that run AI systems can require large amounts of electricity and water to operate.
Siena said of the more than 800 New Yorkers polled, 428 were contacted through landline and cellphone, while 158 completed the poll via a web text message. Siena said 382 respondents were drawn from a proprietary online panel. Of the three questions asked of online respondents, one was exclusively designed to catch chatbots.
The poll has an overall margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points.
Newsday's Alek Lewis and Tara Smith contributed to this story.
John Valenti, a Newsday reporter since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press, Society of the Silurians and National Headliner Awards for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing. He is the author of “Swee'pea,” about New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. His debut crime novel, “For Nothing Is Hidden,” rooted in 1950s Long Island, was released in October 2025.
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