In nationally representative US surveys from late 2024, nearly 40% of adults aged 18–64 used generative AI; 27% of workers used it for work two years after ChatGPT’s release, against 25% using computers at work in 1984, three years after the IBM PC, while only 1%–5% of all work hours were assisted by it.

SocioLens project,

Claim LD01-SL-C15 (v1.0)

Provenance and status

Claim type: Estimate
Publication status: Eligible for publication, with qualifiers: working paper
Verification state: Checked against the primary source; the source is a preprint. Who checked this claim is not recorded for it; claim checks so far were AI-led, and no person has checked claims against their sources.
Does not license: A claim that generative AI is diffusing faster in depth, or a claim about productivity
Limitations: Read in the February 2025 revision and the September 2024 original; both versions compare overall adoption with PCs and the internet (39.5% against 20% in September 2024, 39% against 20% in February 2025) and work adoption with PCs at work (28% against 25% in September 2024, 27% against 25% in February 2025), and the revision leads with the work comparison; the revision also reports 26% of employed respondents using it for work in August and November 2024 and 23% in the previous week; the launch dates chosen drive the comparison; adoption means any use in the reference period; time savings are self-reported; a working paper, not peer-reviewed
Source (as cited): Bick, Blandin & Deming, “The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI,” NBER Working Paper 32966, 2024 (revised February 2025)
Source type: Working paper (recorded as “Academic working paper”)
Institutional position: Independent academic (Vanderbilt University, Harvard Kennedy School) and central-bank economist (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, writing in a personal capacity); survey partly funded by the Walmart Foundation
Maturity of the evidence: Emerging evidence
Recorded date: 16 October 2026
Currentness / correction: This is the current version. No correction or concern is recorded on its sources.

Sources this version cites

Bick, Blandin & Deming, “The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI,” NBER Working Paper 32966, 2024 (revised February 2025) (Working paper)
Read the original

Version

This page shows version v1.0. Its record never changes, even when newer evidence arrives; the site may add a note to the page or withhold a figure not cleared for public use.

This pinned version is also the current version.

Versions: v1.0 · current

Raw record: every recorded field, with its coded values

All 25 canonical Claim fields, verbatim, with the coded values derived from them. The plain-language labels above are read from these.

Claim type (coded): ESTIMATE (as printed: “ESTIMATE”)
Publication status (coded): ELIGIBLE (WORKING_PAPER) (as printed: “ELIGIBLE WITH WORKING-PAPER QUALIFIER”)
Verification state (coded): CONTENT_VERIFIED_PRIMARY (PREPRINT)
Source type (coded): WORKING_PAPER
Maturity (coded): EMERGING

#	Canonical field	Canonical value (verbatim)	Normalized (Claim Value Vocabulary v1.0.2)
1	CLAIM ID	LD01-SL-C15	—
2	PUBLIC-FACING CLAIM	In nationally representative US surveys from late 2024, nearly 40% of adults aged 18–64 used generative AI; 27% of workers used it for work two years after ChatGPT’s release, against 25% using computers at work in 1984, three years after the IBM PC, while only 1%–5% of all work hours were assisted by it.	—
3	CLAIM TYPE	ESTIMATE	base_types: ESTIMATE
4	RESEARCH STRAND	B — Evidence that could tell the accounts apart	—
5	MATURITY	EMERGING	states: EMERGING
6	SOURCE	Bick, Blandin & Deming, “The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI,” NBER Working Paper 32966, 2024 (revised February 2025)	source_ids: SRC-SL-BICK-BLANDIN-DEMING-NBER-W32966
7	SOURCE TYPE	Academic working paper	classes: WORKING_PAPER
8	INSTITUTIONAL POSITION	Independent academic (Vanderbilt University, Harvard Kennedy School) and central-bank economist (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, writing in a personal capacity); survey partly funded by the Walmart Foundation	—
9	SCOPE	United States, adults aged 18–64; August and November 2024 survey waves; historical comparisons with PCs and the internet	—
10	DESIGN	Online survey designed to mirror the Current Population Survey, compared with historical government surveys of computer and internet use	—
11	SAMPLE / DATASET	Real-Time Population Survey waves (pooled N = 9,742); Current Population Survey supplements for PCs and the internet	—
12	MODEL / TOOL / VERSION	Generative AI tools in general	—
13	COMPARATOR	Personal computers and the internet, timed from each technology’s first mass-market product	—
14	MAIN RESULT	Work adoption about as fast as PCs, overall adoption faster than PCs or the internet; 1%–5% of work hours assisted; self-reported time savings equal to 1.4% of all work hours	—
15	INFERENTIAL TARGET	Speed and intensity of generative AI adoption in the US	—
16	DOES NOT LICENSE	A claim that generative AI is diffusing faster in depth, or a claim about productivity	—
17	VERIFICATION STATE	CONTENT VERIFIED PREPRINT	state: CONTENT_VERIFIED_PRIMARY · qualifiers: PREPRINT · verified_by: UNKNOWN
18	LIMITATIONS	Read in the February 2025 revision and the September 2024 original; both versions compare overall adoption with PCs and the internet (39.5% against 20% in September 2024, 39% against 20% in February 2025) and work adoption with PCs at work (28% against 25% in September 2024, 27% against 25% in February 2025), and the revision leads with the work comparison; the revision also reports 26% of employed respondents using it for work in August and November 2024 and 23% in the previous week; the launch dates chosen drive the comparison; adoption means any use in the reference period; time savings are self-reported; a working paper, not peer-reviewed	—
19	CONTRADICTORY / SUPPORTING SOURCES	Read as slow diffusion: LD01-SL-C03; predicted slow diffusion: LD01-SL-C01	—
20	GEOGRAPHY / LANGUAGE	US / English	—
21	DISTRIBUTIONAL LEDGER	Adoption differs by age, education and occupation	—
22	R01 / FIELD-MAP LINKS	LD-01, T4, D2	—
23	WHAT WOULD CHANGE THIS CLAIM?	Measures of intensity or firm integration that rise as fast as individual adoption	—
24	PUBLICATION STATUS	ELIGIBLE WITH WORKING-PAPER QUALIFIER	state: ELIGIBLE · qualifiers: WORKING_PAPER
25	RECORDED DATE	2026-10-16	—

Field 22 references resolved against Field Map v0.2: LD-01 (LIVING_DEBATE); T4 (TENSION); D2 (DOMAIN)

The sources as recorded, with their record IDs and coded source types:

Pinned Sources (field 6, version-specific)

“Bick, Blandin & Deming, “The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI,” NBER Working Paper 32966, 2024 (revised February 2025)” → Bick et al. (2024), “The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI” (SRC-SL-BICK-BLANDIN-DEMING-NBER-W32966--v1.0) — Bick, Blandin & Deming, “The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI,” NBER Working Paper 32966, 2024 (revised February 2025); class WORKING_PAPER (explicit public provenance pin)

Cited by Living Debate versions

What kind of thing is generative AI, and does the answer predict anything? (v0.1) LD-01

Cite this page

SocioLens project. (2026, October 16). In nationally representative US surveys from late 2024, nearly 40% of adults aged 18–64 used generative AI; 27% of workers used it for work two years after ChatGPT’s release, against 25% using computers at work in 1984, three years after the IBM PC, while only 1%–5% of all work hours were assisted by it [Claim LD01-SL-C15, version v1.0]. SocioLens. https://sociolens-web.pages.dev/claims/ld01-sl-c15/v1.0/

@misc{sociolens_ld01_sl_c15_v1_0,
  author = {{SocioLens project}},
  title = {In nationally representative US surveys from late 2024, nearly 40\% of adults aged 18–64 used generative AI; 27\% of workers used it for work two years after ChatGPT’s release, against 25\% using computers at work in 1984, three years after the IBM PC, while only 1\%–5\% of all work hours were assisted by it.},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-10-16},
  howpublished = {\url{https://sociolens-web.pages.dev/claims/ld01-sl-c15/v1.0/}},
  note = {Claim LD01-SL-C15, version v1.0}
}

The link points to this version, whose record never changes. For a finding, cite the original study as well: SocioLens summarizes research and does not replace it.

Research-of-record provenance

Materialized by sociolens-materializer 0.6.0 at 2026-09-28T20:00:00.000Z; normalization contract SocioLens — Claim Value Vocabulary v1.0.2 — Pre-Spike Materialization Contract (v1.0.2). Content seal SHA-256 a7ed49078308b9ab0db9bd8a99f13eb740fe30f77df24910b076bab4a183d8b6.

Repository-authored inputs (not Drive exports)

SocioLens claim — LD01-SL-C15 v1.0 (v1.0) — written in the SocioLens repository by Project Lead (Claude, AI) on 2026-10-16; no Drive identity exists. Authority: AGENTS.md "Authority" (the Project Lead decides research content within the research-integrity rules) and the Owner's choice in the SocioLens project chat on 16 October 2026 to build the LD-01 debate; a new Claim, first version, written from the project's LD-01 source notes, checked against full texts, official web pages or official abstracts. Block “ENTRY 15 — LD01-SL-C15” SHA-256 318a5999a807b73993b46d280fe0a9c57b79da3ce409ef5bce6dadf9718eb46b; fixture fixtures/authored/claims/LD01-SL-C15--v1.0.

Builder decisions (not Drive data)

VERSION = v1.0 — basis: Claim version taken from the repository-authored claim fixture version (SocioLens claim — LD01-SL-C15 v1.0); the first version of a new Claim of the LD-01 debate
CURRENT_POINTER = true — basis: repository-authored claim "SocioLens claim — LD01-SL-C15 v1.0" (Project Lead (Claude, AI), 2026-10-16); basis: AGENTS.md "Authority" (the Project Lead decides research content within the research-integrity rules) and the Owner's choice in the SocioLens project chat on 16 October 2026 to build the LD-01 debate; a new Claim, first version, written from the project's LD-01 source notes, checked against full texts, official web pages or official abstracts
FIELD_6_SOURCE_REFERENCE = SRC-SL-BICK-BLANDIN-DEMING-NBER-W32966--v1.0 — basis: field 6 of ENTRY 15 — LD01-SL-C15 cites "Bick, Blandin & Deming, “The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI,” NBER Working Paper 32966, 2024 (revised February 2025)"; the only field-6 segment of this ClaimVersion's repository-authored ledger block.
SOURCE_PROVENANCE_PIN = SRC-SL-BICK-BLANDIN-DEMING-NBER-W32966--v1.0 — basis: explicit version-pinned public provenance of this ClaimVersion (Amendment v1.2 §6): the pinned field-6 Source record "Bick, Blandin & Deming, “The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI,” NBER Working Paper 32966, 2024 (revised February 2025)".