Survey. Young people seem optimistic about technology and the benefits it may bring not only to their personal lives but also to society at large. But there is a limit to how much they would trust robots and if they would want a chip implanted under their skin, according to the Global Shapers Survey 2017 from World Economic Forum encompassing 31,495 people under 30 years of age from 186 countries.
Young people believe that various sectors would benefit greatly from the adoption of new technologies, with “education” receiving the most votes. It is followed by “healthcare” and “manufacturing”.
Although they embrace technology and believe it improves their lives in general, they do not readily support for example a robot acting as a proxy for them. Over half of the surveyed indicated they would not trust decisions made by a robot on their behalf. Asked if they would support rights to humanoid robots, almost half of the survey respondents answered “no” (49.8%). Only 14% answered “yes” while 36.3% of young people chose “maybe”.
When faced with the possibility of embedding an implant under their skin or in their brain to increase their capabilities, 44.3% of young people reject the idea. Although the most popular vote when looking across gender categories is also “no”, far more males than females are open to an implant: 30% of males answered “yes”, compared to only 17.3% of females, where the difference correlates directly to the results for the “no” answer choice (50.6% for females and 38% for males).