A major challenge of our time is reducing disparities in access to and effective use of digital technologies, with recent discussions highlighting the role of AI in exacerbating the digital divide. We examine user characteristics that predict usage of the AI-powered conversational agent ChatGPT. We combine web tracking and survey data of N=1068 German citizens to investigate differences in activity (usage, visits and duration on chat.openai.com). We examine socio-demographics commonly associated with the digital divide and explore further socio-political attributes identified via stability selection in Lasso regressions. We confirm lower age and more education to affect ChatGPT usage, but not gender and income. We find full-time employment and more children to be barriers to ChatGPT activity. Rural residence, writing and social media activities, as well as more political knowledge, were positively associated with ChatGPT activity. Our research informs efforts to address digital disparities and promote digital literacy among underserved populations.

翻译：我们这个时代的一个重大挑战是减少在数字技术接入和有效使用方面的差距，近期的讨论强调了人工智能在加剧数字鸿沟中的作用。本文考察了预测用户使用AI驱动对话代理ChatGPT的特征。我们结合了N=1068名德国公民的网络追踪和调查数据，以研究活动差异（包括chat.openai.com的使用、访问次数和时长）。我们分析了通常与数字鸿沟相关的社会人口学特征，并通过Lasso回归中的稳定性选择进一步探究了社会政治属性。结果证实，年龄较小和受教育程度较高会影响ChatGPT的使用，但性别和收入没有显著影响。我们发现全职就业和子女较多是ChatGPT活动的障碍。农村居住地、写作和社交媒体活动以及更高的政治知识水平与ChatGPT活动正相关。本研究旨在为减少数字差距、提升弱势群体的数字素养提供参考。