A new poll, released on Wednesday by Northeastern University and Gallup, examines Americans’ attitudes toward artificial intelligence, a force that could upend the employment market and send people back to college to retrain for new jobs. Whose jobs are at risk and who pays for that retraining are open questions for Americans, depending on where they work today.
The results of the survey were published in a report, “Optimism and Anxiety: Views on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Higher Education’s Response,” that contains the opinions of nearly 3,300 adult Americans.
It opens with a set of seemingly paradoxical statistics: Three-quarters of Americans say they are optimistic about the impact that artificial intelligence will have on their lives and work, and yet nearly the same proportion say that machine learning will result in a net loss of jobs. In most categories, blue-collar workers were slightly more pessimistic than were white-collar workers about technology’s impact.
Read more from The Chronicle about how colleges can prepare students for the jobs ahead, the changes in the labor market, and what role career services should play. Purchase our in-depth report here.
But relatively few Americans — 23 percent — believe that AI will eliminate their own careers. Manufacturing, retail, transportation, and information systems are the careers most associated with an AI disruption. And Americans are evenly divided on which skills — “hard” technical skills or “soft” interpersonal skills — will be most valued in the AI revolution.
Americans’ level of education revealed a different kind of paradox. Just one respondent in five who had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher thought that their education had prepared them “well” or “very well” for working with AI. But many more predicted that they would be able to adapt: Fifty-three percent of similarly educated people expressed confidence that they would be able to get the education they would need to find an equivalent job.
Fifty-one percent of Americans believe they will need education to start a new career, but only 18 percent believe they could get access to that training. What’s more, a large chunk of Americans are not looking to colleges for reskilling: Nearly half of the respondents said they would seek retraining from employers, with 61 percent saying that employers should pay for retraining programs. (Many respondents also look to federal and state government and trade unions for retraining support.) Twenty-one percent said they would look to an in-person program at a college or university and 16 percent favored an online college program for reskilling.
Slightly less than half of the respondents favor a universal basic income, in which the government would provide a basic salary for all Americans, whether working or not.
Scott Carlson is a senior writer who covers the cost and value of college. Email him at scott.carlson@chronicle.com.
