More people now expect artificial intelligence to destroy jobs than create them, according to a study of over 50,000 respondents across 37 countries conducted between February and June this year. The shift marks a turning point in public attitudes toward AI as European regulators push for tighter controls while industry leaders warn the technology they've built may pose risks to humanity.
The survey, cited by Euronews, found that worries about job losses are particularly acute in wealthier nations. In Australia, South Korea and the US, around seven-in-ten adults or more believe AI will result in job loss over the next 20 years. A good share of respondents also remain uncertain about how AI will affect the number of job opportunities.
Regulation and Competitiveness
People's view of a country and their trust in its artificial intelligence regulation tend to be closely linked, according to Moira Fagan, senior researcher at the Pew Research Center and one of the authors of the study. In Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, people trust China more than the United States or the European Union with AI governance.
Across the other seven middle-income countries where the question was asked, a median of 43% trust China to regulate AI, 35% trust the US and 34% trust the EU, Fagan said. She added: "Favourable views of China tend to be quite high in middle-income countries – and opinion has risen in many places since last year, likely contributing to some of the high marks we see for trust in China on this particular dimension."
The finding raises questions about Europe's ability to compete in AI development while maintaining its regulatory-heavy approach. Brussels has positioned itself as a global standard-setter on AI governance, but the survey suggests that outside wealthy Western nations, the EU's model doesn't command the confidence policymakers might expect.
Who Fears AI Most
Richer countries are also more concerned about AI increasing economic inequalities than middle-income ones, the report says. Fagan said these tendencies appear to be linked to other data, including people's familiarity with the technology. "People in wealthier countries are more likely to say they have heard or read a lot about AI. And we also found that people with higher AI awareness are more likely to believe it will lead to job loss," she told Euronews Next.
The survey found that young adults aged 18 to 34 are more concerned about AI-related job loss than older generations in both high-income and middle-income nations, including Canada, France, Singapore, Sweden, Indonesia, India and Malaysia.
Opinion divides are less pronounced when it comes to the rise of AI in daily life. Across the 37 countries, a median of 37% are more concerned than excited, while a median of 41% are equally concerned and excited, the survey found.
Industry Calls for Slowdown
The Euronews piece says the publication comes at a crucial moment for AI. Leaders of major AI companies, including Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Dario Amodei, are increasingly concerned about the risks their AI creations pose to humanity and are calling for a slowdown in the pace of AI development.
Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, also backed the deceleration effort in her State of the Union address to the European Parliament earlier this week and pledged closer safety cooperation with Canada, the UK and other like-minded partners.
Why This Matters:
The survey reveals a public increasingly sceptical that AI will deliver the promised economic benefits without destroying livelihoods first. For European policymakers, the challenge is acute: the continent risks falling behind the US and China in AI development while its regulatory approach fails to inspire confidence even in middle-income countries that might otherwise look to Europe as a model. Young workers' heightened anxiety about automation suggests the political pressure on governments to protect jobs will only intensify. If Europe can't balance innovation with worker protection, it may end up with neither competitive AI industries nor public trust in the technology's deployment. The call for a slowdown from industry leaders and Von der Leyen's embrace of it may buy time, but it won't resolve the fundamental tension between technological progress and economic security that now defines the AI debate.