Concerns that robot workers will lack empathy

BRITONS ARE more concerned about robots lacking the compassion to make important decisions than taking their jobs, according to a new report.

Polling for the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) found widespread concern that artificial intelligence (AI) will create a “Computer Says No” culture, in which crucial decisions are made automatically without consideration of individual circumstances.

Fear of inflexible and unfeeling automatic decision-making was a greater concern than machines taking humans’ jobs.

It comes despite a recent warning from the Centre for Cities think-tank that automation could hit Yorkshire with job losses on the scale of the decline of coal mining in the 1980s.

Some 61 per cent of those questioned said their main concern about automated decision-making was AI does not have “the empathy or compassion to make important decisions”.

Almost one third (31 per cent) said the use of AI would reduce accountability, while just 22 per cent said they feared the loss of jobs, the YouGov survey showed.

Despite recent publicity about the misuse of Facebook users’ personal data to target online adverts, issues surrounding social marketing were of least concern.

Some 60 per cent of those questioned opposed automated decision-making by computers in recruitment and promotion choices and the same proportion said it should not be used to help courts judge whether to grant a defendant bail or recommend rehabilitation.

Just 11 per cent backed its use in recruitment and 12 per cent in the courts.

YouGov surveyed 2,074 UK adults on April 16 and 17.