A majority of UAE residents would welcome artificial intelligence devices into their homes – but most would not accept automated doctors or teachers.
A YouGov poll found broad acceptance when it came to installing smart home devices and automated transport, in particular.
More respondents than not said they would accept the prospect of automated news and media – rather than human-led – by 36 percent to 25 percent.
But close to half said teaching, family medicine and specialist medicine and surgery should be led by people.
A separate metric found close to one in three said they felt acceptance, hope and optimism towards artificial intelligence.
In contrast, 48 percent of consumers surveyed showed some level of fear, confusion and “scepticism and concern around the development of AI”.
Despite heavy criticism of the role tech platforms such as Twitter and Facebook play in the global society, respondents tended to trust big, established companies with ethical automated decisions more than smaller companies and governments.
“Among UAE residents, even though the big technology companies (46 percent) are trusted the most with this responsibility, the trust in government is also high and is above the global average (33 percent vs 16 percent),” YouGov’s authors wrote.
These were the key findings of the International Technology Report 2021, which explores sentiments to AI across 17 geographies and 19,000 consumers, including more than 1,000 in the Emirates. YouGov’s authors said the study aims to help public and private sector organizations plan while acknowledging human concerns.
“One could argue that understanding of AI, in general, is limited, as humans straddle belief systems ranging from deep scepticism to bubbling enthusiasm for its potential ramifications for humankind,” the report’s authors wrote.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Technology Express staff and is published from a syndicated feed)
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