The public chattered about the "electronic brains" of the 1950s-1960s, there were profound, sweeping changes that were impossible to ignore, and many professions were obsoleted. However, the profound, sweeping changes weren't where and how the futurists and influencers proclaimed they were going to be and those specialists doing work not amenable to mainframe-ization were still busily employed.

So the thoroughly obnoxious insistence by the current AI snake oil salesmen that [EDIT] that they know the where the future lies and that we must follow their guidance (calculated to benefit themselves and likely wrong anyway) or be "left behind" wears thin. Go follow your own path and leave others to follow theirs in peace.

Oh I'm sure that many of the current predictions on the future are absolutely wrong in many ways; I'm just stating the fact that the technology itself is certainly having an impact and will have a much greater impact into the future.

I feel this is a common position from people who do not want to acknowledge that society and people's ways of life will profoundly change. It's a scary proposition so I don't blame anyone for it.

I used to think that it is very important to argue and convince people who are in denial so that they can e.g. prepare for it. But nowadays I have been thinking that being convinced of this scary proposition may also lead people to behave in destructive ways (also, I would like for us to spend less on AI, perhaps because it is so powerful), so maybe it's not so bad.