I don't think that was ever really in doubt, outside a few fanatics and the willfully blind. AI and Automation have always reduced jobs, it's just that for a long time, instead of reducing total employment they reduced wages (The NBER study I linked to upthread concluded that 50-70% of all wage losses in the US since 1970* were caused by automation, the rest by globalism) so it was relatively easy to obfuscate for a while.
A couple of years back during the COVID lockdowns I lost my job and then took over for a retiring janitor's business. One thing that stood out to me was the banks, where two-thirds of the offices only needed dusting once a week because nobody ever used them. He told me thirty years ago when he started, all those offices were full every day. I fail to believe that this reduction was because the banking sector has shrunk and become less important over time.
*When computers started to enter the workplace, coincidentally also when real wages peaked and they immediately began dropping as soon as automation and AI became a thing.
We’re living through the backstory to Resilient Acceleration.
NationStates | The Lunatic Nerds of Resilient Acceleration | Factbook
www.nationstates.net
And this completely won't be used for covert surveillance against citizens by Big Government…
Imagine how this must be for living birds who encounter such an abomination. The human equivalent of this is like, Flayed Ones, or the Skin Bandits from Kenshi.