Research: American Consumers Thoughts on AI Usage in Hunting Equipment

AI is everywhere today. It seems you can’t do much without hearing about how a new thing is integrated with AI. Technology like this has a way of working its way into American hunting culture and there is likely to be a push for it soon if that hasn’t happened already. At Superior Tactical, we were curious what American consumers currently think about modern hunting equipment being fused with Artificial Intelligence.

To discover this we ran an online survey with American adults (see our methodology below for more details) asking specific questions about artificial intelligence being used in hunting.

Question 1: Do you believe Artificial Intelligence should have any involvement in hunting?

Overall, Americans seem to be solidly against A.I. being part of hunting in any fashion with 68.53% saying No to the idea of fusing these two technologies and only 31.47% saying yes.

However, the figures look vastly different if we only examine the responses by those who self identify currently as hunters, where large majority say they want AI included in hunting at 72.97% and only 27.03% of currently active hunters are against the idea.

The gap gets even wider when we examine only responses from those we labeled as “Highly Active” hunters, meaning they hunt through more than one hunting season or more than one animal species per year. An overwhelming majority of this segment want artificial intelligence to be fused with hunting at 85.71%.

Overall here is how Americans felt about artificial intelligence being used in hunting:

Yes, make this:
Overall Americans – 31.47%
Non-Hunters – 14.37%
Hunters – 72.97%
Highly Active Hunters – 85.71%

No, do not make this:
Overall Americans – 68.53%
Non-Hunters – 85.63%
Hunters – 27.03%
Highly Active Hunters – 14.29%

Question 2: Would you approve of Artificial Intelligence being used in rifle scopes to identify target animals for hunting?

Now that we have a basic idea of the attitudes of hunters and non-hunters towards adding AI into hunting, we wanted to understand a little bit more about those attitudes and how they might shift for different likely-to-be-introduced in the future concepts. The first up was if artificial intelligence was fused somehow with rifle scopes to help identify target animals.

Here is how Americans felt about this concept:

Yes, make this:
Overall Americans – 35.86%
Non-Hunters – 19.54%
Hunters – 75.68%
Highly Active Hunters – 92.83%

No, do not make this:
Overall Americans – 64.14%
Non-Hunters – 80.46%
Hunters – 24.32%
Highly Active Hunters – 7.17%

Question 3: Would you approve of Artificial Intelligence powered robot dogs used to help a hunter find and/or flush target animals?

Here is how Americans felt about this concept:

Yes, make this:
Overall Americans – 30.28%
Non-Hunters – 13.22%
Hunters – 70.27%
Highly Active Hunters – 85.71%

No, do not make this:
Overall Americans – 69.72%
Non-Hunters – 86.78%
Hunters – 29.73%
Highly Active Hunters – 14.29%

Question 4: Would you approve of an Artificial Intelligence powered heads up display for hunters that highlights animal tracks, recently broken foliage, etc… to help hunters track animals?

Here is how Americans felt about this concept:

Yes, make this:
Overall Americans – 41.83%
Non-Hunters – 27.59%
Hunters – 72.97%
Highly Active Hunters – 85.71%

No, do not make this:
Overall Americans – 58.17%
Non-Hunters – 72.41%
Hunters – 27.03%
Highly Active Hunters – 14.29%

Question 5: Would you approve of an Artificial Intelligence powered hunting rifle that allows a hunter to spot, digitally tag, and then automatically target and fire on an animal instead of having to manually target and fire the rifle?

Here is how Americans felt about this concept:

Yes, make this:
Overall Americans – 30.28%
Non-Hunters – 14.94%
Hunters – 67.57%
Highly Active Hunters – 85.71%

No, do not make this:
Overall Americans – 69.72%
Non-Hunters – 85.06%
Hunters – 32.43%
Highly Active Hunters – 14.29%

Question 6: Would you approve of Artificial Intelligence powered drones armed with a rifle to be used for hunting where the hunter could fly the hunting drone, identify animals with A.I., and fire the weapon remotely?

Here is how Americans felt about this concept:

Yes, make this:
Overall Americans – 27.09%
Non-Hunters – 10.92%
Hunters – 70.27%
Highly Active Hunters – 85.71%

No, do not make this:
Overall Americans – 72.91%
Non-Hunters – 89.08%
Hunters – 29.73%
Highly Active Hunters – 14.29%

Conclusions

Artificial Intelligence being added to hunting equipment or culture is unpopular with average Americans. However, it has nearly polar opposite popularity with those who hunt with at least some frequency.

The more active a hunter is, the more likely they are to embrace the technological advantages that might come with adding hunting equipment to their gear.

The most popular ways of adding artificial intelligence to hunting appears to be in any sort of display, in our research specifically this was with scopes and heads up displays. This is likely because these are seen by most Americans and hunters as simply being informative and assistive instead of being capable of making decisions or executing actions that may come with consequences if done incorrectly.

The least popular ways of adding artificial intelligence were in ways that the technology would be capable of making decisions or taking actions on behalf of a hunter in autonomous or semi-autonomous ways. In our research specifically this was with robot dogs, automatic firing rifles, and armed drones where the operator is a hunter who fires remotely.

Methodology

We surveyed 2,051 Americans over the age of 18 asking a series of questions about artificial intelligence and hunting. Our study has a margin of error of 2.16% at 95% confidence level. We strived to gain a sample that was balanced to the U.S. census across age groups, regions, income levels, and gender. Before developing the survey we hired a Futurologist with a track record of making accurate predictions about the future (Joe Youngblood) to help us predict possible future uses of artificial intelligence in hunting culture or equipment. Then we created a survey to ask questions about these types of technologies and how the consumer felt about them being created and made available to hunters. We used this information to develop an understanding of how Americans across different groups feel about A.I. being used in hunting.