[watwut]

I don't know how tractors were sold initially, but AI is sold with open goal of making majority of the people unemployable, "obsolete" and keep it that way. That is literal rhetoric of those companies.

Tractors are tools to make hard boring labor easier.

[greenavocado]

It's not theoretical. I am literally in corporate meetings where leadership is automating away labor by directly comparing total cost of operations against the current human operator's salary to calculate ROI. The direct purpose is to eliminate jobs (and do things more reliably, ideally, since bots don't sleep or get sick). The question is whether those people will be able to find meaningful new work.

[yunwal]

This was absolutely happening with tractors too. Not in a board room or whatever, but people were definitely getting laid off because of tractors.

[vitorfblima]

Not in the speed and scale you would imagine, luckily.

[greenavocado]

Tractors at least grant some degree of agency to their operators.