How Afraid Is the World of Automation?

WITH THE ADVENT OF artificial intelligence technology,anxiety worldwide has been growing in recent years over if, how and when robots will replace human labor and shape major industries. Although automation is often treated as both a global opportunity and a challenge, new research shows that not every country is equally afraid of the new technology.

An opinion poll recently released by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center shows that while the majority of people in the 10 countries surveyed worry about job automation, their anxieties vary greatly, with their fears about technology's impact on the future tied in large part to how their country's economy is performing today.

Additionally, the vast majority of people surveyed in Greece, Japan, Canada, Argentina, Poland, Brazil, South Africa, Italy, Hungary and the U.S. believe automation will worsen inequality in their country, and that people who are replaced by robots will have a difficult time finding jobs.

“There is a widely shared view that the nature of work will likely be transformed over the next half-century, though not everyone is equally convinced,” according to the report's authors

The greatest level of pessimism was found in Greece, where more than half of respondents said AI will definitely affect the job market, while in South Africa 45 percent of people said the same. The results come as no surprise, say the authors of the study, since both economies have suffered in recent years.

“Greece has experienced horrible unemployment problems and so has South Africa,” says Bruce Stokes, director of global economic attitudes at Pew. "It’s conceivable that part of their rationale is that this is just one more thing that’s going to keep them from being employed.”

Around 9 in 10 people in Japan shared similar sentiments that AI will take over human jobs, while in Canada 84 percent of respondents said automation has a good chance of changing work. Roughly 80 percent of survey respondents in Argentina, Poland and Brazil said robots and computers will eventually take over jobs performed by people.

By contrast, in Hungary only 18 percent of those interviewed said computers and robots will definitely take over many human jobs, while in the U.S. 15 percent of those surveyed shared the same views. Additionally, 50 percent of Americans surveyed said automation taking over jobs is a possibility, while 48 percent of Hungarians think this may happen. Earlier this year, the European Commission raised its economic growth projections for Hungary, while wages in the U.S. is currently experiencing a protracted period of growth.