For the first time, artificial intelligence has made it into Americans’ top 10 fears, according to Chapman University’s annual Survey of American Fears.
About 51.9% said they fear AI harming the political process, ranking third, just ahead of loved ones becoming seriously ill at 51.8%, essentially a tie. AI hurting the economy ranked seventh at 49.7%.
Corrupt government officials remained the top fear at 61.1%, followed by another world war at 58%. Interestingly, fear of AI taking jobs fell compared with last year, and people who use AI often were less worried.
“We expect concerns about AI to remain a significant part of the national conversation,” said survey founder Christopher Bader.
“Stanford University researchers have found that the brain develops from two completely separate groups of cells, not one as scientists long believed. One group forms the hindbrain, which controls automatic functions like breathing, heart rate, and sleep. The other forms the forebrain and midbrain, which handle complex abilities like language and reasoning. The two systems appear to have evolved independently and later came together. The same pattern was found in chickens, zebrafish, and acorn worms, suggesting it dates back more than 500 million years. Using this discovery, the team grew hindbrain motor neurons from human stem cells in the lab, which could help scientists study conditions like ALS and spinal muscular atrophy”.
