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submitted 20 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world

The article title is click bait here is the full article:

Wondering what your career looks like in our increasingly uncertain, AI-powered future? According to Palantir CEO Alex Karp, it’s going to involve less of the comfortable office work to which most people aspire, a more old fashioned grunt work with your hands.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum yesterday, Karp insisted that the future of work is vocational — not just for those already in manufacturing and the skilled trades, but for the majority of humanity.

In the age of AI, Karp told attendees at a forum, a strong formal education in any of the humanities will soon spell certain doom.

“You went to an elite school, and you studied philosophy; hopefully you have some other skill,” he warned, adding that AI “will destroy humanities jobs.”

Karp, who himself holds humanities degrees from the elite liberal arts institutions of Haverford College and Stanford Law, will presumably be alright. With a net worth of $15.5 billion — well within the top 0.1 percent of global wealth owners — the Palantir CEO has enough money and power to live like a feudal lord (and that’s before AI even takes over.)

The rest of us, he indicates, will be stuck on the assembly line, building whatever the tech companies require.

“If you’re a vocational technician, or like, we’re building batteries for a battery company… now you’re very valuable, if not irreplaceable,” Karp insisted. “I mean, y’know, not to divert to my usual political screeds, but there will be more than enough jobs for the citizens of your nation, especially those with vocational training.”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with vocational work or manufacturing. The global economy runs on these jobs. But in a theoretical world so fundamentally transformed by AI that intellectual labor essentially ceases to exist, it’s telling that tech billionaires like Karp see the rest of humanity as their worker bees.

It seems that the AI revolution never seems to threaten those who stand to profit the most from it — just the 99.9 percent of us building their batteries.

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[-] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 230 points 20 hours ago

Why do we tolerate these people?

[-] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 70 points 20 hours ago

Because most Americans with slack jaws hunch over their smartphone gawking at tiktok videos of people they hope to one day be but never will.

[-] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 70 points 20 hours ago

Really feeling the victim blaming here when they made the devices into virtual heroine

[-] enterpries@sh.itjust.works 1 points 44 minutes ago

virtual heroine

Bro, come on. People are glued to their phones the same reason you're glued to your computer.

The outside world fucking sucks unless you're a scammer or rich enough to be scammed without noticing it.

It's free to be on our devices, which is why most people are doing it. Everything else costs money that people straight up do not have.

[-] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 31 points 20 hours ago

There's probably a good analogy out there about addiction but I saw something flashy on my smartphone and got distracted.

[-] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 28 points 20 hours ago

You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals so we're easy to distract and get fucken enamored

[-] Hominine@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

Well done! I remember that song fondly.

[-] maccentric@sh.itjust.works 5 points 16 hours ago
[-] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 hour ago

No, no, they made devices into strong female protagonists!

/s

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this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
549 points (96.9% liked)

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