SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Silicon Valley celebrates artificial intelligence and robotics as fields that have the power to improve people's lives, through inventions like driverless cars and robot carers for the elderly.
That message isn't getting through to the rest of the country, where more than 70% of Americans express wariness or concern about a world where machines perform many of the tasks done by humans, according to Pew Research.
The findings have wide-reaching implications for technology companies working in these fields and indicates the need for greater public hand-holding.
"Ordinary Americans are very wary and concerned about the growing trend in automation and place a lot of value in human decision-making," said Aaron Smith, the author of the research, which surveyed more than 4,000 US adults. "They are not incredibly excited about machines taking over those responsibilities."
Once robots are perfected the 99% can be eliminated so they stop bumming the 1% out.
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Friday October 06 2017, @02:55PM (1 child)
This is hardly surprising. Automation benefits exactly one class of people: The ones doing the automating. Yes, it results in less errors when performing boring repetitive tasks, and for a lot of work it totally makes sense. But the average consumer doesn't see that.
What DOES the average consumer see from automation? Erosion of privacy (eg: marketing). Having their lives controlled by algorithms which they have no control or appeal over(eg: insurance, the justice system). Loss of jobs. And the most recent election has demonstrated that politicians are willing to use these advanced systems to blatantly manipulate the populance. In all ways, the average person is losing what little control they still had on their lives.
So why shouldn't people be wary of automation?
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday October 06 2017, @04:13PM
And the most recent election has demonstrated that politicians are willing to use these advanced systems to blatantly manipulate the populance. In all ways, the average person is losing what little control they still had on their lives.
So why shouldn't people be wary of automation?
The people happily allow themselves to be manipulated, so what's the problem, and why would they be wary?