Ask HN: 1950's Chip industry undermined unions how is AI not doing the same?

In the 1950s the Chip industry undermined minorities, immigrants, women and killed unions.

In the 1960-70s it targeted black civil rights groups.

Along the way, white men were pushed into management, while anything outside of business was split into smaller tasked jobs. This in return gave companies leverage to cut salaries.

I don't care what altman says chatgpt did in a blackbox. I judge the world by what I see. Reality is, chat, claude, etc etc are about as useful as smart as the stupidest, slowest engineer on the team.

On the other hand, introducing them has made the job appear more "streamline" more production line like. Work increased, and salaries flattened.

Now that companies are not getting returns off of AI, they are cutting AI spending, but make no mistake. Salaries will not recover.

What am I missing? How am I wrong?

Would love opinions on this

Comments

bigyabaiJul 27, 2026, 1:30 AM
Unless you're talking about potato chips, there was no chip industry in the 1950s.