One in ten Russians surveyed said they feared weapons of mass destruction

Every tenth resident of Russia is worried about the development of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as the emergence of new models of drones and technology. This became known on February 5 from the results of a survey conducted by the Modern Media Institute (MOMRI) in cooperation with the TV channel "Nauka" among 1.6 thousand adult residents of the Russian Federation.

"Respondents talked about fears because of nuclear, biological, chemical weapons, new types of weapons, new generations of drones and military equipment. The share of such answers amounted to 10% of all survey participants," - report the authors of the survey.

It is also noted that in 2023, weapons and novelties of military equipment and technologies caused fear in only 3% of respondents. At the same time 2022 this figure reached 19%, which was a record for the last few years.

The survey also shows that by the end of 2024, the first place among the fears and fears worrying Russians was taken by neural networks and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

"In first place among the fears associated with scientific progress are fears related to the development of artificial intelligence and neural networks, robotization," the study says.

It is noted that this worries 15% of respondents. Such results for the second year in a row put the development of AI in the top of the most worrying topics for Russians. Among the specific examples that cause fear are the enslavement of mankind by robots, the creation of supercomputers, smart and human-independent neural networks and the replacement of humans by artificial intelligence.

The least feared are climate change, as well as space exploration and contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. This worries less than 1% of respondents.

At the same time, according to the results of the 2024 survey, experts revealed an increased number of those who can name what exactly scares in scientific progress: the share of such respondents amounted to 31% of the total number.

"The growth occurred at the expense of those who previously found it difficult to give an answer. The number of those who are not alarmed by any scientific discoveries has reached almost half - 48%, this is also the maximum figure for the last few years," the analysts noted.

Doomsday Clock and "nuclear midnight". What you need to know

On January 30, the U.S. military announced plans to detonate a small amount of weapons-grade plutonium to test the effectiveness of nuclear weapons. It was specified that the explosion is planned to be small, with a small fraction of nuclear weapons power, so there will not be even a small fraction of uncontrolled reaction.

Earlier, on January 24, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia considers it necessary to resume disarmament talks with the United States as soon as possible , undermined by the American side, taking into account the arsenals of Washington's allies.