Researchers are worried that the costs of automation will fall disproportionately on low-skill workers and less-advantaged geographic areas, while higher-paid and higher-skilled workers in more advantaged areas will reap the majority of its benefits. This could trigger a political backlash threatening the overall productivity gains automation is expected to offer. People are both consumers and laborers, and the greater material quality of life promised by new technologies is not necessarily enough to convince societies to accept those new technologies, Harker said.