Third of university students in Great Britain think AI job losses will cause social unrest, poll finds

Tracker of attitudes towards artificial intelligence also finds almost half of the public would prefer to avoid it One in three university students think AI will wipe out jobs so rapidly it will trigger civil unrest, according to a survey by King’s College London (KCL). Students are among the heaviest users of AI, the poll found, with 77% using it at least a few times a month – compared with 46% of workers – and 27% using it daily or almost daily. They are also among the most pessimistic about AI’s economic impact. More than half said they were convinced job losses would be worse than in a normal recession. The findings are the first from a major new tracker of attitudes to AI by the King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the KCL Policy Institute. It compares findings from four groups – 1,000 university students and 1,000 young people aged 16 to 29 in England, Wales and Scotland, and 500 employers and 2,000 members of the public UK-wide. While 22% of the public believe AI will eliminate jobs fast enough to cause civil unrest, that proportion goes up to 34% among university students. Despite their fears about AI’s impact on jobs, university students – particularly male stu