Software ENGINEERS could benefit from unions once they get start getting replaced by AI, but that’s a fairly indirect way to solve the problem. Governments will

Software ENGINEERS could benefit from unions once they get start getting replaced by AI, but that’s a fairly indirect way to solve the problem. Governments will eventually need to deal with mass unemployment, but that’s a societal problem bigger than any individual profession. What Software ENGINEERING needs is standards and regulations, like any other engineering discipline. If you accept that software has become a significant enough component in society that the consequences of it breaking etc are bad, then serious software needs standards to adhere to, and people who are certified for them. Once you have standards, the bar to actually replace certified engineers is higher and has legal risk. That way, how good AI needs to be has a higher (and safer) bar, which can properly optimise for the long term consequences. If the software is not critical or important enough to be standardised, then let AI take over the creation. At that point, it’s not really any different to any other learning or creative endeavour.