BERLIN, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- More than one in four Germans considers the use of artificial intelligence (AI) rather a risk than a benefit, a representative survey by the international data and analytics group YouGov published on Tuesday shows.

The rejection of AI applications rises with increasing age. According to the poll by YouGov, 29 percent of people aged between 54 and 72 in Germany believe that the risks would outweigh the benefits, while the share of AI-disapproving people between 18 and 36 years old is slightly lower at 22 percent.

Across all age groups, only 15 percent believe that the use of AI is generally more advantageous than disadvantageous. Germans would tend to be "skeptical about the general use of artificial intelligence", the YouGov analysis reads.

The use of AI for evaluating individuals is met with the highest resistance. Three quarters of the German population prefer a human counterpart during a job interview and also dislike the selection applicants for a job by machines and algorithms.

According to the YouGov study, AI receives the most approval when writing reports on share prices or football matches. Nearly half of respondents believe that such reports could be written by machines.

European companies are behind their competitors from the United States and Asia when it comes to using AI-based applications where almost 80 percent of companies are already using AI, according to a survey by Korn Ferry. Europe ranked last with only less than 70 percent of AI-using companies.