[goldfeld]

I see how AI is used today and extrapolate. A lot. Everything in tech is extrapolation with the march of capital. It takes one to know one; rather it takes a smart ass to wield a smart tool. So the smart get smarter.

Is it a separate phenomenon, in the big picture, from the rich getting richer, from the monopolies over means of production?

Not sure, but I see as well that the dumb will surely get dumber; that "intelligence" will be a product of using intelligent humans' means of production, and not owning them of course, but being owned in the process. Populations will be literally made lighter of their smarts, outsourcing intelligence to agents out of general control (classic bait and switch.) Since AI feel my own process getting more clueless as I go, I'd better conclude somehow.

I see the Age of Ignorance ahead, there was once an Enlightenment, and here light takes on its other side or meaning, the workers being enlightened, to wit, made lighter of their horrible burden which is intelligence and its obnoxious demands of upkeep. Just pay someone for upkeep and stop messing with wet messy neurons already, says the technocrat to the cheerful mob.

[throwthrowuknow]

The people who only use the end products will be less skillful the same way people today are less skillful at cooking, sewing, carpentry, animal husbandry, etc. because they avail themselves of modern services made possible by technology. If you are utilizing AI to its fullest you won’t be less skillful but you will have to trade your current set of skills for another. The enlightenment you’re feeling is the same you have when you’re promoted to management and don’t have time to get your hands dirty.