"In 34 of 37 countries Pew Research Center surveyed earlier this year, people tend to believe AI will lead to fewer jobs rather than more jobs. Still, opinion on this and other AI-related topics may still be taking shape: In many places, about a fifth of adults or more are unsure how AI will impact their country’s jobs. This share reaches around four-in-ten or more in some middle-income nations (as classified by World Bank lending groups). Indeed, worries tend to run particularly high in countries with higher GDP per capita. For example, in some wealthy nations like Australia, South Korea and the United States, around seven-in-ten adults or more say AI will result in job loss over the next 20 years. In the U.S. – the only country where we have asked this question before – the share who hold this view has increased 7 percentage points in two years. In a number of countries, concern about AI-related job loss is more common among young adults (those ages 18 to 34) than older adults (those ages 50 and older). This is the case in high-income nations like Canada, France, Singapore and Sweden, as well as in middle-income nations like India, Indonesia and Malaysia. (In turn, older adults in some countries are more likely to be unsure how AI will impact jobs.)
[...] On balance, people are more likely to say AI will increase rather than decrease the gap between the rich and the poor. Still, relatively large shares in many places are either unsure or say AI will not affect inequality in their country much. Concerns about inequality, much like concerns about job loss, are related to GDP per capita. Many of the same relatively wealthy countries where people are especially likely to believe AI will cost jobs also have particularly large shares who say it will increase inequality. For example, in South Korea, Australia, the U.S., Greece and Canada, around four-in-ten adults or more say AI will increase the gap between the rich and the poor. Once again, fairly large shares in many middle-income countries are unsure, though on this question the same is true in some high-income countries like Germany and Singapore." (Pages 3-5)