Evaluating the Societal Impact of AI: A Comparative Analysis of Human and AI Platforms Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

A central focus of this study was the methodology used to evaluate both humans and AI platforms, particularly in terms of their competitiveness and the implications of six key challenges to society resulting from the development and increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The list of challenges was compiled by consulting various online sources and cross-referencing with academics from 15 countries across Europe and the USA. Professors, scientific researchers, and PhD students were invited to independently and remotely evaluate the challenges. Rather than contributing another discussion based solely on social arguments, this paper seeks to provide a logical evaluation framework, moving beyond qualitative discourse by incorporating numerical values. The pairwise comparison of AI challenges was conducted by two groups of participants using the multicriteria decision-making model known as the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Thirty-eight humans performed pairwise comparisons of the six challenges after they were listed in a distributed questionnaire. The same procedure was carried out by four AI platforms—ChatGPT, Gemini (BardAI), Perplexity, and DedaAI—who responded to the same requests as the human participants. The results from both groups were grouped and compared, revealing interesting differences in the prioritization of AI challenges’ impact on society. Both groups agreed on the highest importance of data privacy and security, as well as the lowest importance of social and cultural resistance, specifically the clash of AI with existing cultural norms and societal values.