Understanding Public Perceptions of AI in South Africa

The Global Center on AI Governance (GCG) has partnered with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in South Africa to introduce a new module on artificial intelligence in the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS). Running annually since 2003, SASAS is a nationally representative survey that captures public attitudes across South Africa’s nine provinces and all official languages.

As part of this collaboration, GCG has designed an 11-question module focused on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and beliefs about AI. The aim is to generate new data on how South Africans understand, trust, and engage with AI technologies in everyday life.

This marks the first time AI has been directly explored in a large-scale African public attitudes survey. It serves as a pilot for future research into public perceptions of AI across the continent, helping to build evidence for policy and practice that reflects the realities and concerns of African communities.