Report: Most Americans Think AI Will Destroy Jobs, but Will Not Take Their Own Job

Most Americans think A.I. will destroy more jobs than it creates, however less than a quarter are afraid of being replaced themselves, according to a report.

73 percent of American adults in a survey predicted A.I. would “eliminate more jobs than it creates.”

However, only 23 percent admitted to being “worried” or “very worried” about being replaced themselves by automation.

“Notably, these figures vary depending on education. For respondents with only a four-year college degree or less, 28 percent were worried about AI taking their job; for people with at least a bachelor degree, that figure was 15 percent,” reported the Verge, who noted that the results mirror previous studies.

“One survey conducted by Quartz last year found that 90 percent of respondents thought that up to half of all jobs would be lost to automation in five years, but 91 percent said there was ‘no risk to my job.’ Another study from the Pew Research Center in 2016 found the same,” they explained. “65 percent of respondents said that 50 years from now automation would take over ‘much’ of the work currently being done by humans, but 80 percent thought their own job would still exist in that time frame.”

In May, Google China Founder Kai-Fu Lee claimed A.I. “will probably replace 50 percent of human jobs,” while in November, Stephen Hawking declared, “I fear that A.I. may replace humans altogether.”

Automation has already started to replace workers in various fields and industries, including insurance, farming, military, customer service, fast food, and even prostitution.

Last year, a report predicted that four million British jobs in the private sector could be replaced by robots within ten years, and in 2015 it was reported that half of Japan’s workforce could be replaced by A.I. by 2035.