> I think people wildly underestimate how protectionist people - particularly educated software engineers and PhDs will get once an AI model directly impacts their source of wealth.

I don't know what power you imagine SWEs and PhDs posses, but the last time their employers flexed their power by firing them in droves (despite record profits); the employees sure seemed powerless, and society shrugged it off and/or expressed barely-concealed schadenfreude.

It's not going to stop it though even if they try though. You can't stop technical progress like this any more than you can stop piracy.

But agreed, between the unions with political pull and "AI safety" grifters I suspect there could be some level of regulatory risk, particularly for the megacorps in California. I doubt it will be some national thing in the US absent a major political upheaval. Definitely possible in the EU which will probably just be a price passed on to customers or reduced access, but that's nothing new for them.

Hopefully that time AI will be working for us in our homes, stores and farms so we don't need to work as much and this is ok.

Most of the new policies and court decisions, including the one I linked in my reply, have been disjoint with the will of the people. I don't see how your point about shifting sentiment (which I very much agree with) means we'll see any sort of regulatory action from the federal government, especially in the US. Maybe in the EU, someday, after most of the damage has been done?

> What happens when both blue state white collar workers and red state blue collar workers need to contest with AI. Perhaps not within the next 10 years, but certainly within 20 years!

Populism. Probably the fascist right-wing kind, but I expect some form of populism. Related, if we're talking about a 20 year time horizon, I'm genuinely unsure if society will still exist in any recognizable fashion at the rate we're going...