The Observer columnist argues that while public debate often fixates on artificial intelligence wiping out jobs, the deeper and more immediate threat comes from how powerful actors — corporations and governments — might misuse AI to concentrate control and erode civil liberties. The article highlights recent alarmist narratives — such as viral claims about massive job losses — as examples of how fear can distort the public’s understanding of technological change.
Rather than portraying AI as an autonomous force that will inevitably usher in mass unemployment, the piece stresses that fears of machines deciding to eliminate humans or destroy society obscure the real dynamics at play. Historical patterns show that technology has repeatedly transformed work, often creating new roles even as others become redundant, and it’s the social and economic choices surrounding these changes — not the machinery itself — that matter most.
The author also highlights current problems with AI that are grounded in human misuse: hallucinations (false outputs), buggy generated code, and the intensification of labour rather than its disappearance. Employers can use AI to accelerate work and cut costs, but this reflects business incentives and economic structures rather than a deterministic technological inevitability.
The Observer concludes that the urgent challenge isn’t sensationalist fears of “killer robots” or wholesale job destruction, but confronting the spectre of pervasive surveillance and power imbalances enabled by AI. As AI systems become more integrated into governance and corporate practices, the risk of dystopian outcomes stems from who controls the technology and how they choose to deploy it, rather than the technology’s capabilities alone.
