Survey: Artificial intelligence will lead to job losses, say 45% of Bulgarians

Artificial intelligence will lead to job losses, 45% of Bulgarians believe. Some 37% worry that it could replace human labour in their field of work. Nearly a fifth are of the opinion that artificial intelligence should be banned because it poses a danger to people.

The data are from a survey by Trend polling agency commissioned by the newspaper "24 hours" and is on the attitudes of Bulgarians towards artificial intelligence. The survey was conducted between 10 and 16 June 2023 through a direct semi-standardised face-to-face interview with a tablet among 1,008 people aged 18+.

The majority of the Bulgarian citizens (63%) claim to know what artificial intelligence is. One in 10 people express a negative attitude towards its use. Young people have the most positive attitude, and the proportion of negative responses increases with age. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents do not find news and publications related to artificial intelligence interesting, the results of the survey shows.

The most socially acceptable use of AI is in areas such as customer contact (call centres) and the technology sector. Self-driving vehicles and the use of AI in medicine are the most distrusted. The majority of Bulgarians would also not trust the use of AI in areas such as education, financial services, accounting and journalism.

Nearly half of the Bulgarian population (45%) believe that AI will lead to job losses, while only 4% believe it will create new jobs. Thirty-seven percent worry that AI could threaten them directly by replacing human labour in their field of work. The lowest levels of worry are among people under 30, according to the Trend data.

Only 8% support the idea that artificial intelligence should be allowed to develop freely because it will be helpful to humans. Nearly one-fifth (19%) think AI should be banned, and another 57% think it should be regulated so it doesn't pose a danger to people.