Why do tech companies compare AI to the industrial revolution?
Executives use the comparison to frame AI disruption as inevitable and ultimately beneficial, pointing to long-run gains like higher living standards. Critics counter that the comparison actually undercuts their argument — it also predicts decades of exploitation, inequality, and suffering before those gains materialize for ordinary workers.
Answered in
AI Isn’t the Future. It’s History Repeating ItselfA tech exec got booed for comparing AI to the industrial revolution. History says he was right — and that should terrify you.
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