Interest in advanced artificial intelligence is on the rise since OpenAI's ChatGPT was released to the public last year, and fresh data shows how much buzz the novel technology has stirred in each state in the U.S.
Global software firm GoTo issued a recent report analyzing data from Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Index Report for 2023 to gauge usage of the tools.
While it comes as no shock that the analysts found California took the top spot for both job openings and interest given it is home to worldwide tech hub Silicon Valley and major AI developers including OpenAI, Google, Apple and Facebook — some of the other rankings might come as a surprise.
Last year, California easily topped the nation with AI-related job postings at 142,154, more than twice the number of open positions as No. 2 Texas, which had more than 66,000. The state of New York came in third at 43,899, followed by No. Massachusetts (34,603) and No. 5 Virginia (34,221). Florida came in sixth at 33,585.
Californians also show the greatest interest in AI with more than 20 million searches for AI software over the past 12 months. GoTo reported more than half of Californians are regularly searching online for AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Google's Bard, with 51.9% of AI-users per 100 people.
Massachusetts was ranked second in the nation for its interest in AI. While it only had 3.375 million online searches for the technology, its use of AI tools came in at 48.4 per 100 residents. New York came in No. 3 with 9.09 million searches and a 46.6% use rate.
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?
New Jersey ranked fourth for AI interest with over 4.1 million searches and a 44.4% use rate, and Washington came in at No. 5 with 3.4 million searches and a 43.9% use rate.
Although Texas racked up more AI searches than New York with 9.27 million, the Lone Star State's lower adoption percentage of 30.4% placed it at #15 on the list for AI interest.
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The state with the least amount of AI interest in the nation was Mississippi, with 353,760 searches over the past year, 12 out of every 100 residents using AI tools and a little over 2,500 AI-related job postings. It was joined at the bottom of the rankings by Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia and Kentucky.
