More than half of Americans now view AI negatively

Attitudes towards AI are shifting in America. More than half of adults now say that they are more concerned than excited about the technology, and that includes those under 30 for the first time. This comes from a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, which says that concerns over potential job losses caused by AI are the main factor influencing opinion. It found that 71 percent of US adults think AI will lead to fewer jobs in their country over the next two decades, up from 64 percent two years ago. And just 5 percent believe the optimists who say AI will lead to more jobs. 10 percent think it won't make much difference, and a slightly larger share are unsure. The non-profit think tank says that worries have been expressed about employment ever since it started asking this AI question back in 2021, but back then, more people were excited (or a mix of excitement and concern) than were concerned by the technology. Since those days, the number who were more excited has halved (18 percent to 9 percent) while those with issues have now risen to 52 percent. They could be right - Forrester Research was forecasting earlier this year that AI and automation could erase 6.1 percent of jobs in the US by 2030. The situation is even more stark among young adults, where 55 percent of those aged 18 to 29 are now concerned, up from less than a third in 2021. Their concern is now on a par with those in their 30s and 40s, and those aged 65 and up. Across most age groups the trend has been for Americans to increasingly foresee job losses from the use of AI in business. Pew points out that 73 percent of adults under 30 now say AI will lead to fewer jobs, up from 61 percent two years ago. Perhaps this isn't surprising, as AI automation is often pitched as a replacement for some of the entry-level roles that workers in the under 30 age bracket are likely to be starting out with. Americans 65 and older are a bit less likely to think AI will lead to fewer jobs in this latest survey, but this remains the majority view among this age group. Adults under 30 are also more likely to think AI will be bad for society. They believe it will make connecting with others more difficult and creativity harder to come by, according to Pew. While most young adults say they use chatbots, they are just as likely to say that these tools hurt their creativity as help it. Perhaps US workers can take some comfort from Anthropic, which says that AI is not eliminating as many jobs as experts had predicted. Or else move to China, where a court has ruled that it is illegal to replace human workers with AI. (R)