The most insightful part of the essay is the focus on everyday experience. People are not reacting to AI because of labor statistics but because of cheating, fake videos, spam, and the loss of visible effort. When effort becomes indistinguishable from automation, trust erodes. That explains the backlash better than unemployment forecasts.

Where the piece misses the point is scale. It treats AI mainly as a labor market shock. Historically, technologies rarely eliminate work outright. They change what humans are valued for. The deeper danger is not mass joblessness. It is weakened thinking, shallow learning, and a breakdown in shared reality. The economic fear is overstated. The cultural damage is understated.