Yahoo Finance People are both excited and afraid of increased automation: study
The singularity may not be far off but many people are still wary of their robot counterparts.
According to a survey by Lippincott, a creative consultancy based out of the U.S., 81 per cent of people are excited about increased automation, but 73 per cent admit to being afraid to trust machines.
John Marshall, the chief strategy and innovation officer at Lippincott, told CNN Money that the survey demonstrated how conflicted people feel about technology. They want the efficiencies and improvements that it provides, but at the same time, they’re also guarded.
“It vividly shows people aren’t even aware in their own consciousness of what they actually want,” said Marshall.
“If you told someone 10 years ago they would make all their baby pictures public for the world to see, they would stay in a stranger’s apartment instead of a hotel or they would trust robots to manger their money, they would say you were nuts.”
Marshall said the survey indicates that these contradictory feelings will only grow as technology becomes increasingly intertwined with our day-to-day activities.
“It’s going to quickly become very disconcerting for people,” he said.
“They’re quickly availing themselves to these technologies by espousing that they don’t want them, especially the tracking of data.”
Marshall pointed to a 2014 study in New York where people were offered cookies in exchange for personal information such as date of birth, home address or mother’s maiden name.
He said people fear the consequences of losing their privacy, but routinely give it up to use online services provided by Facebook, Google, Apple and many others.
Marshall added that businesses need to realize that traditional market research does not always reveal what consumers really want.
