Third of UK university students fear AI job losses will spark unrest – poll

One in three university students in the United Kingdom believe artificial intelligence will eliminate jobs so rapidly that it will trigger civil unrest, according to a survey by King’s College London (KCL).

The poll found that students are among the heaviest AI users, with 77% using it at least a few times a month compared to 46% of workers, and 27% using it daily or almost daily.

University students also expressed the most pessimism about AI’s economic impact, with more than half saying they were convinced job losses would be worse than in a normal recession.

The findings are the first from a major new tracker of attitudes toward AI by the King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the KCL Policy Institute.

The survey compared responses from four groups: 1,000 university students, 1,000 young people aged 16 to 29 in England, Wales, and Scotland, 500 employers, and 2,000 members of the public across the UK.

While 22% of the public believe AI will eliminate jobs fast enough to cause civil unrest, that figure rises to 34% among university students.

Despite their fears about AI’s impact on employment, university students – particularly male students – appeared more positive about AI than the general public.

Among the public, 48% said they would prefer to avoid AI, 41% said they are scared of it, and only 24% think it is positive for humanity. In contrast, 52% of male students said they believe AI is a positive thing for humanity.

Male university students were also the most confident that AI is improving their ability to think for themselves, while female university students were most likely to think the opposite.

The poll highlighted difficulties students have encountered with AI: nine out of 10 said they had experienced problems, most commonly factual errors (37%) and made-up sources (31%), but fewer than half said they usually or always check AI output before using it.

Despite the rapid growth of AI, 78% of students surveyed said they would still choose to attend university, though 30% would have selected a different subject.

The survey also found a gap in how young people are being prepared for the workforce: 60% said they believe universities are capable of preparing them for an “AI-shaped job market,” but only 36% said they are actually being prepared.

Bobby Duffy, director of the KCL Policy Institute, said: “The public, workers, young people and university students are watching the rapid development of AI with more fear than excitement, with real concern for what it will do to jobs, particularly at entry levels, and, therefore, the prospects for our young people and the economy in general.”

Bouke Klein Teeselink, a lecturer in philosophy, politics, and economics at KCL, struck a more positive note. “With the right training, policies and institutional support, there is a clear path forward to a more hopeful future, with rising productivity, broader opportunity, higher incomes and faster scientific progress,” he said.