The digital divide describes disparities in access to and usage of digital tooling between social and economic groups. Emerging generative artificial intelligence tools, which strongly affect productivity, could magnify the impact of these divides. However, the affordability, multi-modality, and multilingual capabilities of these tools could also make them more accessible to diverse users in comparison with previous forms of digital tooling. In this study, we characterize spatial differences in U.S. residents' knowledge of a new generative AI tool, ChatGPT, through an analysis of state- and county-level search query data. In the first six months after the tool's release, we observe the highest rates of users searching for ChatGPT in West Coast states and persistently low rates of search in Appalachian and Gulf states. Counties with the highest rates of search are relatively more urbanized and have proportionally more educated, more economically advantaged, and more Asian residents in comparison with other counties or with the U.S. average. In multilevel models adjusting for socioeconomic and demographic factors as well as industry makeup, education is the strongest positive predictor of rates of search for generative AI tooling. Although generative AI technologies may be novel, early differences in uptake appear to be following familiar paths of digital marginalization.

翻译：数字鸿沟描述了不同社会和经济群体在获取和使用数字工具方面的差异。新兴的生成式人工智能工具对生产力有显著影响，可能加剧这些鸿沟的影响。然而，与以往的数字工具形式相比，这类工具的可负担性、多模态和多语言能力也可能使其更易被不同用户群体所接受。本研究通过分析州级和县级搜索查询数据，刻画了美国居民对新兴生成式AI工具ChatGPT认知的空间差异。在该工具发布后的前六个月内，观察到西海岸各州用户搜索ChatGPT的比率最高，而阿巴拉契亚地区及墨西哥湾沿岸各州的搜索比率持续较低。与其他县或美国平均水平相比，搜索比率最高的县相对更城市化，居民受教育程度更高、经济状况更优、亚裔居民比例更大。在调整了社会经济与人口因素及行业构成的多层次模型中，教育程度是生成式AI工具搜索比率的最强正向预测因子。尽管生成式AI技术可能是新颖的，但早期采用率的差异似乎正沿着熟悉的数字边缘化路径发展。