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Most Russians unafraid of losing job over artificial intelligence — poll

About a half of those polled said they had a positive attitude towards the development of artificial intelligence

MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Most Russians (68%) have no fear that artificial intelligence will start performing some of functions in their profession, according to a poll released by the All-Russia Public Opinion Center (VTsIOM) on Monday.

As many as 30% of the respondents told the pollster about their fears over artificial intelligence. About a half of those polled (48%) said they had a positive attitude towards the development of artificial intelligence. Another 31% had a neutral position on this issue while 12% of those polled expressed negative emotions on this issue.

Among the fears related to artificial intelligence, Russians most frequently pointed to possible technical failures (31%) and the personal data security threat (21%). The respondents believe that such technologies should be developed in the sphere of science (72%), industry (69%), transport (66%), leisure and entertainment (60%), the poll says.

Russians spoke about their readiness to use services based on artificial intelligence for receiving public services (68%), solving household matters (54%), in the sphere of entertainment (54%) and for receiving healthcare assistance (52%).

Among possible measures of state support for developing this technology, the respondents pointed to vocational education programs (38%) and personnel re-training (36%), the introduction of artificial intelligence into health care and education (36%), the financial support for companies operating in the sphere of artificial intelligence (35%), the improvement of legislation (34%), the use of new solutions in providing public services (34%).

About 5% of those polled do not consider such support necessary. As many as 37% of the respondents expressed their desire to undergo training in the sphere of artificial intelligence in the immediate future while 59% of those polled said they had no such plans.

The VTsIOM pollster conducted its poll on order from the Russian government’s analytical center in October 2019 by interviewing 1,600 respondents aged above 18 over the phone. The maximum error margin does not exceed 2.5% with a 95% probability.