Artificial Intelligence

[daftandbarmy]

36% of those polled believe that AI is harmful?

We're in alot of trouble, Canada...

Views on Artificial Intelligence​

• Canadians are divided: 34% say AI is good for society, 36% believe it is harmful, and 31% are unsure. Those results are similar to those of March 2025 (32% perceived them as good for society and 35% as bad). Canadians who have used an AI tool (49%) and younger respondents (45% of those 18–34) are more positive.
• Nearly half of AI users (46%) also worry that reliance on AI could make people intellectually lazy or weaken cognitive skills. Concern is highest among Canadians who think AI is bad for society (67%) and 18-34 years old (52%).

Views on Artificial Intelligence

Download the report to discover Canadians' views on and usage habits of artificial intelligence.

leger360.com

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Describe "harmful" . That could be 2-3 very different things:

1. Employment, AI is likley to hammer middle management hard, taking out a chunk of what is left of the middle class, with no replacement jobs in sight.
2. Poor quality, Currently AI borrows from collected human knowledge, but as time goes on it will trawl through other AI generated information and will form a constant which leaves out a great deal. It will also cause people to rely upon it and not develop their own skills and knowledge.
3. AI evolving out of control. Already there is concern about AI evolving into something that will act on its own and taking steps to protect itself and not necessary be a friend of humanity.

I have concerns on all 3 points. Right now I worry a lot about 1 & 2. 3 is on the horizon, but currently even an evolved AI cannot build physical connections, we retain the abilty to pull the plug, literally.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Apparently 42.3% of Canadians also believe that the internet is a fad, that the jury is still out on automobiles, and that someday the Leafs will win the Cup.

Canada - a nation of timmies who are addicted to Timmies

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Canada. Why carpe the diem when it is more gratifying to carpe about the diem.

We have already squandered what was a dominant position in AI. We need to get on with it FFS.

 

[Brad Sallows]

AI is not inherently harmful.

Uses of AI are potentially harmful.

Those inclined to ignore the latter possibility should review how quickly the "DOGE" people were able to scrape government information with the assistance of AI to start compiling suggestions.

All information on the web can be scraped and analyzed to suit anyone's purposes. In short, it's a remarkable tool for surveillance-minded people.

 

[CBH99]

Given the dark skies of state surveillance looming on the horizon & blowing closer, that last sentence is blunt and true.

Facial recognition software, smart surveillance cameras, a digital ID, digital currency...all managed & babysat by an artificial lifeform that can think, evolve, and execute it's plans faster & more comprehensively than we can...

...

I actually don't understand the fundamental rush everybody all over the world has towards AI...

Like we have all these different countries pouring money and resources into building up the infrastructure to support AI...but...why?


(I'm an 80's baby and I think life has been pretty swell without some artificial lifeform - designed, funded, and programmed by the government and/or businesses the government contracts, running everything in my life for me. Call me old fashioned)

 

[Kirkhill]

And history becomes what AI sez it is.

Robots in the pulpit.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Don't panic....

Myth Debunked: Machines Create More Jobs Than They Destroy​

Do machines replace humans? Since the beginning of industrialization 200 years ago, we earthlings have been plagued by this fear. From the early uprisings of the weavers to the 1970s “job killer computer” slogan, and up until the 2013 thesis of researchers Michael Osborne and Carl B. Frey, according to whom machines could soon take away every second job. But a German researcher, Terry Gregory of the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), now presents a very different calculation. According to him, automation has brought Europe an additional 1.5 million jobs in the past decade.

“There have always been such horror scenarios over the past centuries,” he says. Admittedly, artificial intelligence brings a lot of novelty with it. “But such technologies always end up spreading more slowly than expected.” Until now, for example, only 5% of German companies have adopted networked robots and other such tools of the industry 4.0. “Of course, nobody knows exactly what the future holds. It’s a gaze into the crystal ball. But people will have time to adapt to it.”

Myth Debunked: Machines Create More Jobs Than They Destroy

worldcrunch.com