> Need to renew a passport? Your AI assistant can handle it. Want to resolve a billing dispute? Your bot speaks the call center’s language better than you ever

> Need to renew a passport? Your AI assistant can handle it. Want to resolve a billing dispute? Your bot speaks the call center’s language better than you ever could. These systems aren’t speculative—they’re already outperforming the humans they represent in key tasks. This is all true, but I'm disappointed that TFA doesn't address the implication -- namely, the massive job destruction. Routine service jobs like those described employ probably tens of millions worldwide and are a stepping stone into the middle class, and I think AI razing them wholesale is a tragedy. In general, the impact of AI at the societal level looks like a force to return us to what most societies everywhere have been like: a small layer of owners at the top, a vast block of interchangeable unskilled laborers at the bottom, and an (ever-shrinking) sliver of clerks and skilled laborers sandwiched between. Broad middle classes, created by the Industrial Revolution, then end up as a blip in the overall course of history. That outcome would be one of the most destructive things I can imagine.