Most or 76% of interviewed Latvian respondents admit holding the belief that in the future technologies will outcompete humans, according to results of a survey performed by Tele2 and Berg Research.
The survey was carried out in December 2022. A total of 1 006 people participated in it.
46% of respondents believe it would be best if technological development was more strictly controlled. Generally
33% of respondents are worried about rapid inclusion of technologies in everyday life. Most of them are youngsters under the age of 24 years.
Most often people express concerns that rapid development of technologies could cause some jobs to disappear entirely.
«Generally people’s caution when it comes to technologies, especially when it comes to the risk of losing jobs, is nothing new. It is a something of a typical reaction. In this context we can look back at the Luddite movement in Britain at the start of the 19th century: they secretly damaged the weaving machines of textile factories because they feared the machines would take away people’s jobs,» explains Riga Stradins University’s assoc. Prof. Klāvs Sedlenieks. «However, the last century has shown that technological development has nothing in common with loss of jobs – people continue finding new employment options.»
According to 76% of respondents, the ability to love is the main quality humans have, and technologies will never be able to convey it. Another 45% of respondents are confident technologies will never exceed a real human’s ability to feel empathy. 37% believe creativity is one field in which technologies will not be able to outcompete humans.
«Technologies have a dual nature, which is proved by results of our survey. For example, the majority of respondents agree technologies make life easier and contribute to economic development. On the other hand, however, they also admit that
technological development does make people lazier.
We all agree technologies are here to stay, so we should instead focus on discussing ways to apply them in a useful and practical manner,» said Tele2 board chairman Valdis Vancovičs.
Also read: Voice communication services in Latvia are generally of high quality, with VoLTE – excellent