A Facebook data center in Prineville, Oregon.<\/p>\n
Meg Roussos | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Americans\u00a0are deeply concerned over the prospect that advances in artificial intelligence could put swaths of the country out of work\u00a0permanently, according to a new\u00a0Reuters\/Ipsos\u00a0poll.<\/p>\n
The six-day\u00a0poll, which concluded on Monday, showed 71% of respondents said they were concerned that\u00a0AI\u00a0will be “putting too many people out of work\u00a0permanently.”<\/p>\n
The new technology burst into the national conversation in late 2022 when\u00a0OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot launched\u00a0and became the fastest-growing application of all time, with tech heavyweights like Facebook owner Meta Platforms<\/a>, Google owner Alphabet<\/a>\u00a0and Microsoft<\/a>\u00a0offering their own\u00a0AI\u00a0products.<\/p>\n While at present there are few signs of mass unemployment – the\u00a0U.S. jobless rate was just 4.2% in July\u00a0– artificial intelligence is stirring concerns as it reshapes jobs, industries and day-to-day life.<\/p>\n Some 77% of respondents to the\u00a0Reuters\/Ipsos\u00a0poll\u00a0said they worried the technology could be used to stir up political chaos, a sign of unease over the now-common use of\u00a0AI\u00a0technology to create realistic videos of imaginary events.<\/p>\n President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0last month posted on social media an\u00a0AI-generated video of former Democratic president Barack Obama being arrested, an event that never happened.<\/p>\n Americans\u00a0are also leery about military applications for\u00a0AI, the\u00a0Reuters\/Ipsos\u00a0poll\u00a0showed. Some 48% of respondents said the government should never use\u00a0AI\u00a0to 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.<\/p>\n The general enthusiasm for\u00a0AI\u00a0shown by many people and companies has fueled further investments, such as Foxconn<\/a>\u00a0and SoftBank<\/a>‘s\u00a0planned data center equipment factory in Ohio. It has also\u00a0upended national security policies\u00a0as the United States and China\u00a0vie for\u00a0AI\u00a0dominance.<\/p>\n More than half of\u00a0Americans\u00a0– some 61% – said they were concerned about the amount of electricity needed to power the fast-growing technology.<\/p>\n Google said earlier this month it had signed agreements with two U.S. electric utilities to reduce its\u00a0AI\u00a0data center power consumption during times of surging demand on the grid, as energy-intensive\u00a0AI\u00a0use outpaces power supplies.<\/p>\n