I remember watching movies like I, Robot, Bicentennial Man, The Matrix and, later on, Logan and being struck by how many human jobs were replaced by robots in the imagined future. It’s definitely projected to happen within the coming decades, according to some. But a new poll shows that Americans aren’t terribly concerned about the big robot takeover just yet.
Polling 1,038 adults in August, who were designed to be representative of the U.S. population, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 57 percent of Americans believe that their jobs are safe from automation for at least the next 10 years. Fifty-six percent think that it could actually make their jobs easier or more efficient in the coming years.
Yet, the poll also notes that there is a “wide gap” in responses between people with different education levels:
Americans without college degrees are twice as likely as those with degrees to say it’s very likely automation will cost them or someone in their household a job. That is in line with studies that have found that lower-skilled work is more likely to be automated.
And though people currently prefer to talk to an actual person instead of a machine when making a purchase, most of the people polled think that new technology will make shopping easier and more convenient, thus resulting in a drastic loss of retails jobs.
You can read the rest of the poll’s results here.