'Will AI steal my job?' Koreans among nationalities feeling most threatened by AI

Local researchers conducted an analysis on a recent international survey about various social challenges, and found that South Koreans are among the people who are the most likely to feel that AI technology could threaten their jobs.

Scholars of the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs studied the data provided by the study "Societal Challenges, Public Opinion and Public Policies in 10 Countries," a survey of 10 countries conducted by the Digital Futures at Work Research Center. The countries surveyed were South Korea, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the UK and the US.

Researchers found that 35.4 percent of Korean respondents agreed that AI and other new technologies could be threatening to their jobs.

Koreans were ranked the second most likely among the surveyed nationalities to think so, following 39.1 percent for Italians. Americans, the current leaders in AI technology, ranked third with 35 percent.

The country least concerned about AI threatening their jobs was Denmark, with only 18.3 percent of the respondents saying so. Sweden was next with 20.1 percent, Germany with 21.1 percent and Finland with 24.1 percent.

Koreans' apparent unease toward AI technology may be linked to the perception that they are not prepared. Some 56.9 percent of the Korean respondents said they felt sufficiently trained in terms of digital technology at work, which was the second lowest out of all the surveyed nationalities next to 56.4 percent of Polish nationals.

In contrast, 71.9 percent and 70.2 percent of the respondents from the UK and Norway, respectively, said they felt sufficiently prepared for AI.

According to the researchers, Koreans tend to underestimate their capacity in digital technology, citing the widespread use of smart devices and AI tools in Korea.

For example, 77 percent of all Korean workers used computers regularly at work, which was higher than any other country in the survey. It was the same for generative AI, with 15.6 percent of Koreans using AI regularly at work, which was more than 11.1 percent for Norwegians -- who ranked second in this category.