Artificial Intelligence: One in three people fears that AI threatens their jobs

Around one in three Germans fears losing their job due to the use of artificial intelligence (AI). In a survey conducted by the opinion research institute Yougov, 34 percent of Germans expressed concern about this, while 62 percent expressed no such concern. Five percent of respondents were unsure of their opinion. A representative survey commissioned by the German Press Agency (DPA) was conducted in mid-August and involved 2,175 eligible voters.

The survey did not reveal any major differences between supporters of the various parties represented in the Bundestag. Those who voted for the AfD, BSW, or Left Party in the last federal election tend to be somewhat more concerned about losing their jobs due to AI than others. Green and FDP voters express this concern somewhat less frequently than average. Nationwide, Germans living in cities and those with low levels of education are more likely to fear that their jobs could be completely or partially done by AI in the future.

According to a study published in June by the Ifo Institute, around 27 percent of companies in Germany expect AI to lead to job cuts in the next five years. Around five percent of companies expect additional jobs as a result of AI, while two-thirds expect no change.

Since the US company Open AI released Chat-GPT, its first interactive language model, in November 2022, the development of AI models has made enormous progress. The AI ​​models presented since then by various companies and developers have shown improved capabilities, including in terms of logic, efficiency, scalability, and the simultaneous processing of text, images, audio, video, and other formats. Especially in Europe, issues of security and data protection are now also at the forefront.