I think it's particularly interesting to see this debate play out as AI starts to reproduce code. As in this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35643715 -- I find that people who work on these systems are fine with exposing all kinds of artists and writers to the dangers of automation, but when that comes home to roost and AI starts to be able to reproduce their own work, suddenly it's a problem.
It just makes me wonder why should software engineers should represent some special protected class from the dangers of automation.
Not saying this author is 100% right, just saying I understand the spirit of it.
Political influence, like just about everything, is distributed unequally. I doubt software engineers have much more pull than artists. But once AI is threatening to obsolete lots of labor, it might run into problems.
The strategic way to introduce it, therefore, would be in ways that help a lot of people without (at least initially) destroying many jobs. But it seems like firms would have to cooperate beyond what they are capable of to pull that off.
It just makes me wonder why should software engineers should represent some special protected class from the dangers of automation.
Not saying this author is 100% right, just saying I understand the spirit of it.