Concerned, Not Excited
For generations, we’ve joked that when some new technology comes out—from a new antenna for old-style televisions to the latest online opportunity—if you want to understand it or have it work, better get a young person, often one of your children.
But going forward, not so fast. A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows that younger Americans are becoming increasingly skeptical of artificial intelligence, AI…a majority, in fact, now say they are more concerned than excited about AI’s growing role in our lives.
As AI becomes more widely used at work, in schools, and with consumer goods and services, there is a growing shift in public opinion away from it. The Pew survey of nearly 3,500 adults shows 55 percent of adults under age 30 are more concerned than excited. Overall, the number concerned is 52 percent, a big jump from five years ago, when only 37 percent were concerned. Only 9 percent are more excited than concerned about the growth of AI.
Obviously, we old folks are set in our ways and many of us have resisted AI at all turns. But the growing concern among younger Americans is key, because they once stood out as the age group most receptive to new technology. Not any more.
That all might have to do with the possibility of AI taking our jobs. Overall, 71 percent of Americans now believe AI will lead to fewer jobs in the U.S. over the next 20 years, up from 64 percent just two years ago…and young adults are leading that shift, with 73 percent of the under-30 bunch saying AI will lead to fewer jobs in the next two decades—their prime work years.
Finally, something the seniors and the young adults agree on—technology has gone too far.
