It’s impossible recently to be even remotely interested in technology and not know a bit about what’s been happening in the world of artificial intelligence. AI has been the most discussed and debated tech topic of the century so far and there have been countless pieces penned by experts across the board about whether it’s the greatest leap forward since the Internet or the end of the world in digital form. We’ve also seen plenty of big names in various industries share their personal opinions on either side of the discussion; but there has been less discussion about wider opinions from those lower down the business ladder who will be affected more. So, what are they saying about AI?

The Broadly Optimistic

There are a handful of applications of AI that do seem to have near-universal support. The renowned tech researchers at the Ada Lovelace Institute did an extensive report on the thoughts of the British public which revealed that medical uses; specifically using AI to detect cancer, have the highest support with less than 5% of the 4,000 people interviewed stating a concern with it. In general, in cases like cancer detection where speed is essential, the application of AI will be favoured. It also holds true for completely unrelated subjects like processing assessments for loans where again; the public likes the idea of speeding up a famously slow process. Within the workforce, some industries are also generally optimistic about using AI, albeit not as universally. It is difficult to nail down numbers for it but reports from farmers; and the agricultural field are usually positive, at least regarding the technology itself. This is mainly because the primary use of AI in farming would largely be limited to speeding up; and automating time-consuming management tasks rather than taking over any of the core roles; freeing up time in those roles as a result.

Benefits of Moving to AI:

This includes things like crop disease detection, irrigation, pest control and many more things; and a key feature of each of these tasks is that moving them to AI wouldn’t threaten key jobs. It means that in theory; barring a few edge cases, the entire workforce of a farm from labourer up to the owner is set to benefit; and groups from the UN to MIT are already reporting on those exact benefits to smaller farms and regions in particular. By all reports, including those of IBM who operate in the area; local farmers in places like Kenya and South Africa are extremely positive about; how much things such as weather prediction and soil analysis have helped them. It is also important to note that those industries that have high levels of automation already tend to sit on the optimistic side. Certain industries such as digital banking and online casinos use an array of systems and features; many of which connected to user health and safety. Larger online casinos in particular employ a variety of ‘safe play’ features designed to make sure that users keep having fun. Users who play online slots at Paddy’s do so in the confidence that they are being looked after; and so for both the player; and the casino, having AI systems to make the whole process more responsive and accurate is a win-win.

The Somewhat Concerned

Starting with the public view, the report we mentioned earlier had one application on the list that was the biggest concern; and it seems to a concern shared with the American public as well. Almost half of the respondents in the study conducted by the Pew Research Center had more worries than positive thoughts about driverless cars. Some are understandably reluctant to trust AI to have such control over their lives. For AI as a whole though, the biggest concern was less about safety; and instead about job security with a loss of human jobs ranking highest as the main concern of 19% of respondents. Within businesses, this is proving to be the biggest worry for employees in a wide variety of roles. Creative jobs have made the most headlines this year as we saw one of the largest Hollywood strikes ever play out over months. To be clear; the writers’ and actors’ strikes were not only about AI as fair pay topics played a large role; but all involved were adamant that no deal could struck unless protections from AI job redundancy enshrined in the contract. The creative range also includes career writers outside of Hollywood and film studios; graphic designers working either as freelancers or in non-design companies; and artists as a whole who fear that companies may be willing to accept a slight drop in creative quality for massive savings on contracts. There have already been stories reported by the BBC of entire five-person writing teams being laid off without warning; and other ‘horror stories’, true or not, frequently get passed around in creative social groups such as Reddit.

A Demographic Note

To put everything above into perspective, the data collected by both research centres; and via overall sentiment show that younger generations of both the public; and workers show higher support for AI across all applications. We have seen the same pattern time and again with the introduction of new technology, particularly ‘game-changing’ tech like AI; the Internet or even the steam engine back in the day. It’s telling that, as a generation used to companies like Facebook or Amazon having major global influence; the younger half of those surveyed would prefer regulation be in the hands of the developers as opposed to the elder half who clearly prefer state bodies. For the vast majority of humanity not directly in the AI business; we are now very much in the ‘wait and see’ stage. As generations phase through over the next decade or two; it’s feasible that we’ll see opinions shift quite heavily as well; and with the breakneck rate of development, the opinion landscape could soon look very different.