{"id":1821840,"date":"2026-03-12T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1821840"},"modified":"2026-03-12T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:00:00","slug":"ai-isnt-replacing-workers-its-making-them-compete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1821840","title":{"rendered":"AI isn\u2019t replacing workers \u2013 it\u2019s making them compete"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/0-352-1450-966\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441138.png&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/life-culture\/article\/69863\/1\/ai-pressure-to-become-an-irreplaceable-worker-myth-chatgpt-claude\" data-article-id=\"69863\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.57\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"No Other Choice (2025)\" class=\"img\" height=\"1318\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1400\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441138.png\" width=\"2070\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">No Other <span class=\"nowrap\">Choice (2025)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-03-12T08:00:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"12 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"12\">12,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - life-culture\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/feature\">Feature<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/feature\">Feature<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>AI isn\u2019t replacing workers \u2013 it\u2019s making <span class=\"nowrap\">them compete<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>With fear of being \u2018phased out\u2019 of rapidly AI-integrated workforces, people are scrambling to secure their place as one of the few \u2018valuable\u2019 <span class=\"nowrap\">humans left<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-12T08:00:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"12 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"12\">12,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-12T08:00:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"12 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"12\">12,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/laurapitcher\">Laura Pitcher<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cHope everyone enjoys their last year of meaningful work!\u201d That\u2019s what YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Chad_Hurley\/status\/2026919598516511182\"><span>posted on X<\/span><\/a><span> in late February. <\/span><span>The subtext was that artificial intelligence is on track to drastically change the workforce. And, in many industries, the transformation has already begun. Burger King <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/ai-artificial-intelligence\/884911\/burger-king-ai-assistant-patty\"><span>is reportedly launching an AI chatbot<\/span><\/a><span> that will live in the headsets used by employees and check if they say \u201cplease\u201d and \u201cthank you\u201d. Software Engineers are now <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/vibe-coding-engineering-apocalypse\/\"><span>\u201cvibe coding\u201d<\/span><\/a><span> with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google\u2019s advanced coding models. And companies like Microsoft and Shopify are encouraging employees to offload some tasks to AI tools.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The vision of the technology \u201ccoming for our jobs\u201d has existed since AI first emerged on the scene, but the promise of increased productivity has sold some workers on a new goal: learning to work alongside an AI-powered workforce. It conjures up a question that\u2019s similar to the one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/park-chan-wook\">Park Chan-wook<\/a> posed in the (Oscar-snubbed) 2025 comedic thriller <\/span><em><span>No Other Choice<\/span><\/em><span>. Without too many spoilers: if AI wipes out a number of professions completely, what are people willing to do to ensure their place as one of the few \u201cvaluable\u201d humans left?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As a writer, I\u2019m used to hearing that AI will one day replace me, as if quantity, not quality, is the deciding factor in the words people connect with. Freelance writer Liz tells me she already feels like she competes with AI. \u201cI feel pressure to over-deliver on everything I do, as AI has given me a persistent feeling of being replaceable,\u201d she says. \u201cIf a machine is perceived as having all of these \u2018capabilities\u2019, human labour becomes hard to justify.\u201d After noticing a recent dip in writing opportunities, Liz suspects that AI is at least a factor. \u201c<\/span><span>I have also noticed a rise in a new type of gig: postings for freelancer writers not to write but to train AI,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After graduating in December, Nat\u00e1lia Oprzadek-Vodilkov\u00e1, a 21-year-old writer in New Jersey, has been using AI in an attempt to make it past the AI-screenings on online job listings. \u201cYou have to get chosen first by the algorithm to even be considered by a human,\u201d she says. \u201cI found myself really stressed over whether I\u2019m using the right keyword, asking if I\u2019m sending applications out into the void, so I started asking AI how it thinks I can appeal to the applicant tracking system.\u201d Usually, says Oprzadek-Vodilkov\u00e1, ChatGPT will give her some kind of direction. The problem is there&#8217;s just no way to tell if it works \u2013 except for landing a job, which she hasn\u2019t done yet. \u201cAt a certain point, everybody\u2019s just going to be doing the exact same thing, competing to not get auto-filtered by copying the job description, so how do I stand out?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cAt a certain point, everybody\u2019s just going to be doing the exact same thing, competing to not get auto-filtered by copying the job description, so how do I stand out?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>For those already in the workforce, like 29-year-old Jalana Torres, who recently moved to San Francisco to work in communications, being an early adopter of AI can feel like the best bet in securing your future at a rapidly changing company. <\/span>This can mean taking on a larger workload under tighter AI-inspired deadlines. <span>\u201cIf a colleague uses AI to turn around social copy twice as fast and I don\u2019t, eventually that becomes a problem,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can have reservations and still recognise that you have to adapt to the reality we\u2019re in.\u201d By using every new tool that comes along, Torres is hoping her open mindset might make her more \u201cvaluable\u201d, since her skill set alone no longer feels like enough. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be phased out, and I do sometimes wonder whether I\u2019ll need something like an MBA or another degree just to stay competitive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Considering that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/americans-fear-ai-permanently-displacing-workers-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-08-19\/\">71 per cent of Americans<\/a> are worried that AI will \u201cput too many people out of work permanently\u201d, you can\u2019t blame people for wanting to secure their place in the future. If AI agents can achieve rapid, <\/span>\u201cinfinite\u201d productivity, it\u2019s only natural to compare our output as humans and feel like we need to do more, much faster, to keep up. <span>While there\u2019s also talk of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/ng-interactive\/2026\/feb\/18\/ai-four-day-workweek\">a four-day work week<\/a> that could come with all the \u201cfree time\u201d that embracing AI will allow, there\u2019s one glaring issue with this promise: major companies are not developing AI with workers in mind. Our relationship with AI exists under a capitalist system, which already fundamentally treats workers as inherently and perpetually replaceable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Long before ChatGPT and Claude entered the workplace, we were already sold a similar myth through one of the earliest mainstream examples of AI: social media algorithms. Unable to rely on companies for basic benefits or job security, people bought into the promise of the \u201cpersonal brand\u201d becoming key to a long-lasting career. Essentially, if you could rack up enough followers, not only would every company want to work with you, but you wouldn\u2019t even need to log into Slack. As the influencer economy has played out, we\u2019ve seen some getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in brand deals, while others fade quickly into obscurity after going viral once.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I use social media algorithms as an example because they illustrate how Big Tech companies can impose their view of people as transactional and monetisable, and how quickly we accepted ourselves as brands. Far from the dream of democratising industries, we now know that social media algorithms are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC11420529\/\"><span>not only riddled with biases<\/span><\/a><span> but are accelerating the way we consume people as content. It\u2019s no longer enough to just have followers: you have to keep up with the Internet\u2019s insatiable appetite. Nothing and no one is \u201cirreplaceable\u201d in a space that is evolving at warp-speed for the sake of technological progress and innovation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cI don\u2019t want to be phased out, and I do sometimes wonder whether I\u2019ll need something like an MBA or another degree just to stay competitive\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In today\u2019s AI-powered world, tech leaders think less about <\/span><em><span>why<\/span><\/em><span> they are innovating and more about how quickly they can innovate. They sell a message of technology as self-determining, with society having no choice but to adopt it. But who exactly does that message benefit? \u201cIt benefits the people selling it, right? That this is inevitable,\u201d says Human-AI interaction expert Julie Carpenter. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The irreplaceable worker is a compelling fantasy. For workers under mounting pressure to adopt AI, Carpenter says, we\u2019re seeing what happens when institutions make choices for us. It\u2019s very difficult to feel like you can opt out. But we can also no longer afford to think of future-proofing careers by individual means; the pathway forward lies in collective action to secure rights for all workers, regardless of automation. \u201cHyperstition is a prediction that becomes true when enough people believe in it,\u201d says Maxime Fournes, CEO of PauseAI, a global movement calling to stop the development of more powerful general artificial intelligence systems, at least until it is known how to build them safely. \u201cThey say you can\u2019t stop progress, but that\u2019s just nonsense.\u201d Especially when it\u2019s progress just for progress\u2019s sake.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Fournes\u2019s point \u2013 that no law of the universe says that a bunch of people in Silicon Valley have to continue building more powerful AI systems \u2013 leads to another necessary realisation: for too long, we have let companies decide who and what is valuable. If anything, the rise of AI only emphasises that value has never been an inherent property of work, but something assigned by the society the work exists within \u2013 a choice we can actively make together. (And that\u2019s not to say that a more human-centred approach to AI couldn\u2019t be part of that.) <\/span><span>As Carpenter puts it: \u201cHistory is fraught with rich white guys telling us they know what\u2019s best for humanity.\u201d <\/span>The only way to become an \u201cirreplaceable\u201d worker is to demand that all the fellow workers around you are invaluable, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! 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Here\u2019s everything you need to know<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69819\/1\/love-junkie-robert-plunket-author-novel-penguin-modern-classics-interview\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Studio 54 \" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/32-0-846-563\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440579.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Love Junkie: The must-read cult novel about the 80s New York gay scene <\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"swiper-slide list-element\">\n<div class=\"scard-latest__section\">\n<div class=\"card-latest__wrapper\"><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69723\/1\/how-to-date-a-people-pleaser-beth-mccoll-love-relationships-boundaries\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"HowToDateWhen 16x9\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/125-0-1624-1080\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438515.png\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">How to date when&#8230; you\u2019re a people pleaser<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69826\/1\/can-you-still-use-chatgpt-clear-conscience-anthropic-claude-department-of-war\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Zoe Kravitz in Kimi (Film Still)\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/219-63-1763-1173\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440363.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Is it finally time to boycott ChatGPT?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69824\/1\/brooklyn-pastry-chef-tanya-bush-will-this-make-you-happy-book-interview-baking\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Pauline Chatelan x Tanya Bush - film -32\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/66-788-2142-1425\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440286.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Can cake solve your quarter-life crisis? This Brooklyn chef thinks so<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline\" data-newsletter hidden>\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cHope everyone enjoys their last year of meaningful work!\u201d That\u2019s what YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Chad_Hurley\/status\/2026919598516511182\"><span>posted on X<\/span><\/a><span> in late February. <\/span><span>The subtext was that artificial intelligence is on track to drastically change the workforce. And, in many industries, the transformation has already begun. Burger King <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/ai-artificial-intelligence\/884911\/burger-king-ai-assistant-patty\"><span>is reportedly launching an AI chatbot<\/span><\/a><span> that will live in the headsets used by employees and check if they say \u201cplease\u201d and \u201cthank you\u201d. Software Engineers are now <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/vibe-coding-engineering-apocalypse\/\"><span>\u201cvibe coding\u201d<\/span><\/a><span> with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google\u2019s advanced coding models. And companies like Microsoft and Shopify are encouraging employees to offload some tasks to AI tools.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The vision of the technology \u201ccoming for our jobs\u201d has existed since AI first emerged on the scene, but the promise of increased productivity has sold some workers on a new goal: learning to work alongside an AI-powered workforce. It conjures up a question that\u2019s similar to the one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/park-chan-wook\">Park Chan-wook<\/a> posed in the (Oscar-snubbed) 2025 comedic thriller <\/span><em><span>No Other Choice<\/span><\/em><span>. Without too many spoilers: if AI wipes out a number of professions completely, what are people willing to do to ensure their place as one of the few \u201cvaluable\u201d humans left?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As a writer, I\u2019m used to hearing that AI will one day replace me, as if quantity, not quality, is the deciding factor in the words people connect with. Freelance writer Liz tells me she already feels like she competes with AI. \u201cI feel pressure to over-deliver on everything I do, as AI has given me a persistent feeling of being replaceable,\u201d she says. \u201cIf a machine is perceived as having all of these \u2018capabilities\u2019, human labour becomes hard to justify.\u201d After noticing a recent dip in writing opportunities, Liz suspects that AI is at least a factor. \u201c<\/span><span>I have also noticed a rise in a new type of gig: postings for freelancer writers not to write but to train AI,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After graduating in December, Nat\u00e1lia Oprzadek-Vodilkov\u00e1, a 21-year-old writer in New Jersey, has been using AI in an attempt to make it past the AI-screenings on online job listings. \u201cYou have to get chosen first by the algorithm to even be considered by a human,\u201d she says. \u201cI found myself really stressed over whether I\u2019m using the right keyword, asking if I\u2019m sending applications out into the void, so I started asking AI how it thinks I can appeal to the applicant tracking system.\u201d Usually, says Oprzadek-Vodilkov\u00e1, ChatGPT will give her some kind of direction. The problem is there&#8217;s just no way to tell if it works \u2013 except for landing a job, which she hasn\u2019t done yet. \u201cAt a certain point, everybody\u2019s just going to be doing the exact same thing, competing to not get auto-filtered by copying the job description, so how do I stand out?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cAt a certain point, everybody\u2019s just going to be doing the exact same thing, competing to not get auto-filtered by copying the job description, so how do I stand out?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>For those already in the workforce, like 29-year-old Jalana Torres, who recently moved to San Francisco to work in communications, being an early adopter of AI can feel like the best bet in securing your future at a rapidly changing company. <\/span>This can mean taking on a larger workload under tighter AI-inspired deadlines. <span>\u201cIf a colleague uses AI to turn around social copy twice as fast and I don\u2019t, eventually that becomes a problem,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can have reservations and still recognise that you have to adapt to the reality we\u2019re in.\u201d By using every new tool that comes along, Torres is hoping her open mindset might make her more \u201cvaluable\u201d, since her skill set alone no longer feels like enough. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be phased out, and I do sometimes wonder whether I\u2019ll need something like an MBA or another degree just to stay competitive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Considering that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/americans-fear-ai-permanently-displacing-workers-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-08-19\/\">71 per cent of Americans<\/a> are worried that AI will \u201cput too many people out of work permanently\u201d, you can\u2019t blame people for wanting to secure their place in the future. If AI agents can achieve rapid, <\/span>\u201cinfinite\u201d productivity, it\u2019s only natural to compare our output as humans and feel like we need to do more, much faster, to keep up. <span>While there\u2019s also talk of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/ng-interactive\/2026\/feb\/18\/ai-four-day-workweek\">a four-day work week<\/a> that could come with all the \u201cfree time\u201d that embracing AI will allow, there\u2019s one glaring issue with this promise: major companies are not developing AI with workers in mind. Our relationship with AI exists under a capitalist system, which already fundamentally treats workers as inherently and perpetually replaceable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Long before ChatGPT and Claude entered the workplace, we were already sold a similar myth through one of the earliest mainstream examples of AI: social media algorithms. Unable to rely on companies for basic benefits or job security, people bought into the promise of the \u201cpersonal brand\u201d becoming key to a long-lasting career. Essentially, if you could rack up enough followers, not only would every company want to work with you, but you wouldn\u2019t even need to log into Slack. As the influencer economy has played out, we\u2019ve seen some getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in brand deals, while others fade quickly into obscurity after going viral once.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I use social media algorithms as an example because they illustrate how Big Tech companies can impose their view of people as transactional and monetisable, and how quickly we accepted ourselves as brands. Far from the dream of democratising industries, we now know that social media algorithms are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC11420529\/\"><span>not only riddled with biases<\/span><\/a><span> but are accelerating the way we consume people as content. It\u2019s no longer enough to just have followers: you have to keep up with the Internet\u2019s insatiable appetite. Nothing and no one is \u201cirreplaceable\u201d in a space that is evolving at warp-speed for the sake of technological progress and innovation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cI don\u2019t want to be phased out, and I do sometimes wonder whether I\u2019ll need something like an MBA or another degree just to stay competitive\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In today\u2019s AI-powered world, tech leaders think less about <\/span><em><span>why<\/span><\/em><span> they are innovating and more about how quickly they can innovate. They sell a message of technology as self-determining, with society having no choice but to adopt it. But who exactly does that message benefit? \u201cIt benefits the people selling it, right? That this is inevitable,\u201d says Human-AI interaction expert Julie Carpenter. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The irreplaceable worker is a compelling fantasy. For workers under mounting pressure to adopt AI, Carpenter says, we\u2019re seeing what happens when institutions make choices for us. It\u2019s very difficult to feel like you can opt out. But we can also no longer afford to think of future-proofing careers by individual means; the pathway forward lies in collective action to secure rights for all workers, regardless of automation. \u201cHyperstition is a prediction that becomes true when enough people believe in it,\u201d says Maxime Fournes, CEO of PauseAI, a global movement calling to stop the development of more powerful general artificial intelligence systems, at least until it is known how to build them safely. \u201cThey say you can\u2019t stop progress, but that\u2019s just nonsense.\u201d Especially when it\u2019s progress just for progress\u2019s sake.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Fournes\u2019s point \u2013 that no law of the universe says that a bunch of people in Silicon Valley have to continue building more powerful AI systems \u2013 leads to another necessary realisation: for too long, we have let companies decide who and what is valuable. If anything, the rise of AI only emphasises that value has never been an inherent property of work, but something assigned by the society the work exists within \u2013 a choice we can actively make together. (And that\u2019s not to say that a more human-centred approach to AI couldn\u2019t be part of that.) <\/span><span>As Carpenter puts it: \u201cHistory is fraught with rich white guys telling us they know what\u2019s best for humanity.\u201d <\/span>The only way to become an \u201cirreplaceable\u201d worker is to demand that all the fellow workers around you are invaluable, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69863\/1\/ai-pressure-to-become-an-irreplaceable-worker-myth-chatgpt-claude&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/0-352-1450-966\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441138.png&#8221;] No Other Choice (2025) March\u00a0 12,\u00a0 2026 Life &amp; Culture \/ Feature Life &amp; Culture \/ Feature AI isn\u2019t replacing workers \u2013 it\u2019s making them compete With fear of being \u2018phased out\u2019 of rapidly AI-integrated workforces, people are scrambling to secure their place as one of the few \u2018valuable\u2019 humans left March\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1821840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1821840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1821840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1821840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1821840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}