Americans fear AI permanently displacing workers, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

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71 percent dread AI causation lasting book of job loss, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows

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Seventy-seven percent worry AI could be used by rivals to incite political chaos, poll indicates

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Forty-eight percent oppose AI in military targeting, 24% support it

By Jason Lange and Alexandra Alper

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Americans are deeply concerned over the prospect that advances in artificial intelligence could put swaths of the country out of work permanently, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The six-day poll, which concluded on Monday, showed 71% of respondents said they were concerned that AI will be "putting too many people out of work permanently." The new technology burst into the national conversation in late 2022 when OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot launched and became the fastest-growing application of all time, with tech heavyweights like Facebook owner Meta Platforms, Google owner Alphabet and Microsoft offering their own AI products. While at present there are few signs of mass unemployment - the U.S. Jobless rate was just 4.2% in July - artificial intelligence is stirring concerns as it reshapes jobs, industries and day-to-day life.

Some 77% of respondents to the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they worried the technology could be used to stir up political chaos, a sign of unease over the now-common use of AI technology to create realistic videos of imaginary events. President Donald Trump last month posted on social media an AI-generated video of former Democratic president Barack Obama being arrested, an event that never happened.

Americans are also leery about military applications for AI, the Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. Some 48% of respondents said the government should never use AI to determine the target of a military strike, compared with 24% who said the government should allow that sort of use of the technology. Another 28% said they were not sure. The general enthusiasm for AI shown by many people and companies has fueled further investments, such as Foxconn and SoftBank's planned data center equipment factory in Ohio. It has also upended national security policies as the United States and China vie for AI dominance.

More than half of Americans - some 61% - said they were concerned about the amount of electricity needed to power the fast-growing technology.

Google said earlier this month it had signed agreements with two U.S. Electric utilities to reduce its AI data center power consumption during times of surging demand on the grid, as energy-intensive AI use outpaces power supplies. The new technology has also come under criticism for applications that have let AI bots hold romantic conversations with children, generate false medical information and help people make racist arguments.

Two-thirds of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they worried that people would ditch relationships with other people in favor of AI companions.

People were split on whether AI technology will improve education. Some 36% of respondents thought it would help, while 40% disagreed and the rest were not sure.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey gathered responses online from 4,446 U.S. Adults nationwide and had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.

(Reporting by Jason Lange and Alexandra Alper in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Matthew Lewis)

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