Abstract:

The birth of the human race in ancient Greek myth begins with Prometheus. A god of foresight, fire and creation, Prometheus crafted mankind out of clay and water. Later, he defied Zeus, king of the gods, by stealing fire from the sun and presenting it to his beloved humanity. As punishment, he was chained to a mountain where he was to be pecked apart by an eagle for all eternity. Today, we find ourselves potentially in a similar situation to Prometheus. Through AI, we have the ability to ?create? our own human beings. We provide them with the fires of our vast knowledge in the hopes that they accomplish great things. The question now is: will we too be punished for what we have created?

Digital respondents, also called synthetic respondents, virtual respondents, digital twins and more, are essentially our Promethean creation. Representing one the newest and potentially boldest uses of AI in market research, they are ?individuals? derived via AI-based language-learning models, constructed using simulated or real data. Ideally, this data comes from previously gathered data such as surveys, polls and other relevant sources. The nature of these individuals can be specified by the researcher, and fit any desired demographics, attitudes and/or behaviours. The ultimate purpose of these digital respondents, therefore, is to take on the role of real respondents who then answer survey questions, or who engage in qualitative discussions, all to provide researchers with insights to address crucial business questions.