When we listen to people talk about the benefits of a new technology, they often talk in ways that sound quite utopian. For example, if you go onto the website of Github's Copilot, a ChatGPT-like tool specialised in writing code, you'll run into a lot of very exciting-sounding blurb that explains its many benefits:
I have felt improvements of 50%, the process of getting started is very simple.
Sebastian Barrios // VP of Technology
Luddites were skilled laborers whose jobs were "made redundant" with the introduction of weaving machines. Yes, the new jobs were better, but you only need a handful of weavers to manage dozens of machines. And the Industrial Revolution meant that everyone needed a job to survive because people could no longer live off the land as they had in centuries past. The natural response then was anger against the machines threatening their livelihood.
AI for code generation is currently dogshit but improving exponentially. Pretty soon, the programming jobs left will be for senior programmers like me. And I will be expected to "tweak the output" of these algorithms until the people in charge can get rid of me too.
I hope the owning class realizes soon that Universal Basic Income is preferable to people realizing they have nothing left to lose anyway.