This is a paid article which your subscription is allowing you to read.

Fewer than half of South Africans think artificial intelligence (AI) will result in job losses, while large majorities in most rich countries think this will be the case.

This is according to a survey conducted earlier this year by Pew Research, a non-partisan think tank in the United States.

It surveyed over 40 000 people in 37 countries and territories.

The chart below shows global views on whether AI will lead to job losses.

According to Pew, it was people in high-income countries who were more concerned about job losses caused by AI. It said, “Worries tend to run particularly high in countries with higher gross domestic product per capita. For example, in some wealthy nations like Australia, South Korea, and the United States, around seven in 10 adults or more say AI will result in job loss over the next 20 years.”

While fewer than half of South Africans thought AI would lead to job losses, only 14% thought it would lead to more jobs. Perhaps reflecting the uncertainty many people have towards AI, 24% of South Africans were unsure how AI would affect jobs.

People in richer countries were also more likely to think that AI would result in an increase in inequality.

More than half of Australians and South Koreans thought this would be the case, while only 28% of South Africans thought AI would result in an increase in inequality. However, 28% of South Africans were unsure what impact AI would have on inequality, again showing that people’s views on the technology are still developing.

The chart below shows views on how AI will impact inequality.

Relatively low proportions of South Africans are more concerned than excited about AI, with 32% expressing this view. However, only 18% are excited about AI, with nearly half being equally concerned and excited about the technology.

Again, it is generally people in higher-income countries who are more concerned about AI.

The chart below shows people’s views on whether they are concerned or excited about AI.

South Africans, and people in developing countries generally, are broadly more optimistic about AI than their counterparts in richer countries, although there are large numbers of respondents, in South Africa, as well as across the other surveyed countries, who are unsure of what the technology could do.

It remains to be seen how far AI will improve people’s lives, how widely its benefits will be shared, and what costs will accompany those gains. Its potential to transform how people work, learn, and solve problems is considerable, but the scale of that transformation is still uncertain. Will its impact be comparable to the invention of the steam engine, which ushered in a new economic era? Or will it prove more fundamental still, comparable to humanity’s harnessing of fire, expanding human capabilities in ways that we cannot yet fully imagine? Unsurprisingly, most people around the world seem unsure.