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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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  • 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

  • Highly consequential decisions about AI's benefits and risks are currently being made on the basis of very limited data.

    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

  • 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

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
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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.
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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
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Where sources disagree
ING Group
Both facts record the same metric (shares_outstanding) for ING Group at the identical observation date (2025-12-31). FACT A states 2,902,437,688 shares; FACT B states 2,902 million shares (2,902,000,000). The difference is 437,688 shares (~0.015%). This is a genuine value conflict, though the discrepancy appears to result from FACT B rounding to the nearest million while FACT A provides the precise count.
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