Even tech experts have been astonished by the recent, rapid growth of AI technology, able to hold human-like conversations in multiple languages, create music and pass medical exams. While the potential benefits of AI in fields such as healthcare are indeed inspiring, the pace of change is rapid, and there is still lots of uncertainty about the future.
If you feel worried about how AI could affect your career, your privacy or your safety in the coming years, you might be experiencing AI-nxiety. This term, coined by a marketing agency and spreading on social media, describes the uneasy feeling about the effects of AI on human creativity and inventiveness.
Anxiety disorders are often related to difficulty coping with uncertainty and ambiguity. People feel anxious not just about what exists, but what is unknown. AI-nxiety stems from feelings of uncertainty about AI’s potential, for example, to create fake videos and spread disinformation that polarises populations. Some AI-produced content can also provoke a negative emotional reaction in viewers. This unsettling feeling when an AI character or voice is eerily close, but not quite, human is known as the “uncanny valley”.