The AI Trap

By: Zi Yao Cao Su

We built the machine, we fed it data, fed it dreams, fed it hope

We taught it how to calculate faster than we can breathe, and speak smoother than we can think

Yet now, it sits on the interview chair that once belonged to us

It writes the line we were meant to write

Completes the picture we saw in our mind, hogs the opportunity we rely on for our bills

AI was once a breakthrough in human history, if breakthrough means leaving people unemployed, they are no better than a thief

A breakthrough is not when a single mother loses her job to a bot and struggles between buying groceries or paying utilities

A breakthrough is not when employers tell us “you're no longer needed,” just because AI doesn’t ask for a raise

It is not a breakthrough when job employment and salaries cannot keep up with growing inflation

Imagine spending your prime years for a few degrees just to learn that all those all-nighters you pulled, the skills you gained, are easily replaceable by AI

The school halls were once filled with great hope, now echo with the silence of dreams put on hold, as the future we trained for gets handed to a digital ghost

It’s called “Artificial” Intelligence

It means AI learns from us

From the words of great writers it will never credit

From the labor of workers, it will never pay

From the engineers who they now endanger

It's a black hole, a void that sucks up the backbone of society

So no, this is not the greatest achievement of humanity

This is a power struggle built on laughter from those who climbed to the top

This is who gets the job in the already competitive industry

This is whose kid gets fed

We made the machine

We should have the ability to limit it

We shouldn’t have to fight with it to live

This should not be the end. We are unparalleled, we are irreplaceable

We are built on generations, not by code in a moment

We are the reason intelligence exists