  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.
