The broader industry pressure, at least as it shows up in HN posts about AI usage at work, is apparently to pressure ICs to manage AI workers without being granted access to the management pay scales. As we’re seeing on HN, a lot of our ICs are clearly itching to be managers when the workforce has no ability to complain about or contest their demands. It must be an infuriating time to be a middle manager, both jealous of the ICs who get to manage compliant workers rather than human ones, and terrified for their own jobs, and having to see HN enraged at all the managerial content being posted with ‘AI’ after years of HN rejecting those exact same topics when it’s about managing humans rather than AI.

(Outside of the context of HN I don’t have anything to say here about the industry as a whole. Someday in another more appropriate post about the tech industry I will, though!)