Russian applicants are afraid that neural networks can fall into the hands of scammers and seriously harm people, and AI can “lazy” company employees. This is evidenced by the results of the survey, which was conducted from March 10 to 27, 2023, 2.4 thousand Russian applicants took part in it.
The main danger, according to respondents, is the possibility of using neural networks by fraudsters. This answer was chosen by 66% of the respondents. 44% of respondents fear that these technologies can deprive people of jobs and professions, 38% believe that AI can make people lazy and even stupid (31%). Every tenth participant in the survey noted the danger that neural networks become very similar to people.
At the same time, only 14% believe that AI can deliberately harm a person or enslave humanity. Only 11% of respondents do not see any dangers in the development of neural networks.
Along with the dangers, the majority of respondents also see the benefits of using AI and neural networks: 62% of respondents believe that these technologies can help them perform routine professional tasks, which will allow them to concentrate on creativity. Almost half (47%) believe that AI can perform not only routine, but also intellectual, creative tasks.
Two-thirds of respondents (66%) have a positive or rather positive attitude towards the development of AI and neural networks – the corresponding options were chosen by 25 and 41% of respondents. Another 18% said they had a neutral attitude towards the development of these technologies. Only 12% expressed negative assessments: 9% chose the option “rather negative”, 3% – “extremely negative”.
Attitudes towards new technologies are better among men (72% of positive answers compared to 59% for women). The study also fixes a correlation: the younger, the better the attitude towards the development of AI and neural networks. Among the respondents aged 18–24 years, the share of positive assessments is the highest — 77%; among those aged 25–34, 73% gave positive assessments. Among those aged 35 to 44, the share drops to 60%, and among those over 45 years of age, slightly more than half gave positive assessments.
The attitude to the development of AI and neural networks also depends on the field of activity. Thus, the most positive assessments were given by applicants working in IT (78%), as well as those working in the field of investment, strategy, consulting (80%). Among the most conservative are employees of transport and logistics (41%), financial industry and accounting (54%), and personnel management (58%).
The main emotion experienced by the study participants regarding the development of AI and neural networks is interest: 68% chose this answer option. Another 15% noted joy as the main emotion. Positive feelings were more often noted by younger participants in the study. Every fifth (22%) experiences a feeling of anxiety in connection with the development of these technologies, 5% noted fear, 3% – anger.
More than a quarter of the study participants (29%) believe that there is a threat of neural networks getting out of human control. More than half of the respondents (57%) note that the development of neural networks is currently under full human control. The younger the respondents, the greater the confidence in human control over new technologies. So, among 18-24-year-olds, 74% are confident in control over neural networks, 25-34-year-olds – 60%, but among those over 35, a little less than half of the respondents answered this way. More than a third of survey participants over 35 speak of the threat of neural networks getting out of control.
About 40% of the study participants noted other potential areas of work for neural networks: 43% see the benefits of using them for entertainment, 41% believe that AI can be useful in everyday life and make work more productive, 42% that neural networks can contribute to scientific discoveries. Only 7% see no benefit in using AI.
User Experience
31% of respondents used neural networks to work or solve professional problems, most often representatives of the IT industry answered this way, as well as applicants from the field of marketing, advertising, PR – about half of all respondents.
The most common tasks are writing various texts, generating codes, creating images, information retrieval, graphics and design, photo processing, and various data analysis tasks. The vast majority – 88% – are satisfied with the results.
A significantly larger number of study participants have experience using neural networks for personal purposes and entertainment. More than half (52%) of the respondents admitted that they used neural networks mainly out of curiosity (87%); to create avatars (33%) and write texts for social networks and instant messengers (25%). 83% of respondents are satisfied with the results of using neural networks for personal purposes.
The answer to this question also fixes gender and age dependence: experiments with neural networks for personal purposes were more often carried out by men and young people; older participants were less likely to try neural networks for fun.
Neural networks at work
The majority of respondents (62%) are ready to regularly use neural networks in their work as a tool. Men were more likely to talk about it than women, and the responses of older participants were traditionally more conservative.
Every fourth applicant (26%) would agree to work together with the neural network, in the case when the results of the work are compared. But every tenth respondent under the age of 35 agrees to work under the guidance of a neural network, and no more than 5% at older ages. Almost the same number – 8% of respondents – are ready to protest against the use of neural networks in their work. The most open to collaboration and the use of neural networks in their work are applicants from the following areas: information technology, marketing, advertising, PR, strategy, investment, consulting. The least willing to interact with neural networks are applicants involved in personnel management and training, finance and accounting, transport, logistics and transportation.
