Intelligence Curse essay warns AI may replace workers

This is a strong incentives story, not just a job-loss screed: if AI keeps getting cheaper, better, and more reliable, companies will eventually optimize for fewer humans in the loop.

• –The core mechanism is pyramid replacement: hiring freezes first, then layoffs, then management compression as AI gets good enough to absorb more of the org chart
• –The resource-curse analogy is useful because it explains how profits and output can stay healthy while wages, tax bases, and local economies weaken
• –The biggest uncertainty is timing, not direction; adoption friction, regulation, robotics bottlenecks, and organizational inertia could slow the transition a lot
• –For builders, the implication is that “human-in-the-loop” tools will need to prove they create durable human leverage, not just short-term productivity gains
• –The article is more convincing as a warning about incentives than as a precise forecast of mass unemployment on any fixed timeline