As the hype around AI eventually settles down to saner levels, I wonder how will the world around us look like. Will it bring the promised value that venture capitals are scraping their knees for? Will the fears of every junior programmer be finally over when they are actually realized? I have few theories in mind of what might happen.

Eutopia of meaningful work

AI gets good at taking care of menial tasks - write a git commit, write documentation for api, preparing project timeline, delegating work between people, making powerpoints and excels. When such workload is unburdened from a workers shoulders they can indulge in more cognitive and meaningful work - strategizing, ideating, building. This will bring much more purpose to people's life and in turn value to consumer's life. Job will no longer contain dreadery of robotic tasks but the novelty of creative task.

Dystopia of menial work

AI is able to process truckloads of information, run through parameters for optimal result and give out the answer to complex question pertaining to specific situation in aspects of strategizing, ideating, building. It will have enough cognitive ability to come with solution or direction for any situation given enough data. Then only thing left to do would be for a human to do proverbial knob twisting and wiring stuff together. This will suck all the meaning out of a person's work as all they will become is replaceable cog in the machine. Job will be nothing more that acting as robotic arm in an assembly line.

Back to normal

The bet on advancement in AI capabilities is lost. The expected improvement by AI startups slowly turn into diminishing returns. Billions of dollars poured into this adventure would need to be recouped one way or another. Free tiers and trial would have to go owing to utter loss faced by the company each second. It will be found that the cost of adopting AI is unfeasable when stalked the benefits it provides. Things go back to normal. Few special use cases benefit from AI and rest move on.

To the infinity

Room temperature superconductor material is discovered. Quantum computing is now a reality. AI is now as complex as neural network of entire of humanity combined nine times over. It reaches a technological singularity by having devised methods to improve and evolve itself into next generation within mere seconds. True exponential growth. What would happen to job market then is left to reader's imagination.