Artificial intelligence sparks hope--and fear, US poll shows

Americans are torn over the promise of artificial intelligence, a new poll showed Wednesday, expressing broad optimism about the emerging technologies but also fearing their negative impacts--including job losses, a poll showed Wednesday. The Gallup survey showed 79 percent of Americans say artificial intelligence has had a "mostly positive" or "very positive" impact on their lives thus far. At the same time, 73 percent said they expect the increased use of AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates and 63 percent predicted that new technologies and smart machines would widen the gap between rich and poor. Asked about autonomous vehicles, 42 percent of respondents said they would be "extremely uncomfortable" riding in a self-driving car and 62 percent would be concerned about sharing the road with self-driving trucks. "In general it's fair to say there is optimism and also anxiety," said Brandon Busteed of Gallup, which conducted the survey with Northeastern University.