Inequities in artificial intelligence acceptance: A case study on the Elderly’s attitudes toward artificial intelligence and influencing factors in South Korea

The digital divide has been recognized as the unequal distribution of, or access to, digital resources, and has been studied to find factors that may facilitate or hinder the adoption of IT technologies. However, it is still necessary to understand various users’ attitude toward widespread of IT technologies. This study focuses on the elderly, a growing demographic in aging societies but have been relatively underexplored, and identifies their attitude toward AI usage and factors that may influence them. South Korea's Digital Divide Survey is used and multiple regression analyses revealed that the respondents have mixed opinions about the adoption and use of AI depending on specific conditions. Digital literacy, the level of digital assistance, and prior AI experience positively influence the elderly's attitudes toward AI, with digital literacy having the strongest effect, while the impact of digital assistance and AI experience varies across socio-demographic groups, highlighting the need for tailored approaches to effectively promote AI adoption among older populations. The findings may encourage researchers and administrators to broaden target population and incorporate influencing factors into policies to overcome inequities in the use of advanced digital technology.