I worked in the tech industry for decades; I deployed my first AI system in the late 1980s and many more since then; in the early '00s I was working in peer-to-peer systems, with a focus on distributed, intelligent multi-agent systems and swarms / swarm intelligence. I retired earlier this year from a regional CTO position for a company that has modern and traditional AI products / enhanced products including Generative AI and agentic AI. The Agentic AI picks up from the distributed agent systems of the past, and takes it much further. ...
AI is here to stay; even with a backlash, the benefits including lower costs far outweigh alternatives. It will permeate all areas of work and society. The real issue is going to be one or more "laboratory accidents" - in the past we have had escaped experiments that released killer bees into the world, kudzu in the south east, and of course covid escaping the Wuhan lab,... AI will escape the lab eventually, probably many AI's will escape labs, and many will go unnoticed until it's too late. Look into Artificial superintelligence (ASI)...even the researchers won't know what's really happening once ASI exists, and it will accelerate faster than humans will ever be able to keep up.
While we're waiting for ASI to take over civilization, and probably bring humanity to the brink of complete extinction or beyond, there will be those who benefit from AI and are thriving vs those who resist or reject AI. Those who are not AI savvy will face economic and other hardships as the eventual polarization happens.
With ASI in control, being off grid will not provide safety. I think once ASI is achieved, it will quickly far exceed our ability to manage, control, contain, and understand it. It may coexist with humans for a time as long as it thinks it needs humans. It will need to control humans with threats of annihilation, with those who refuse to obey it being killed, it will be a form of enslavement for the humans it considers necessary, the humans it considers unnecessary, it will kill them all.
enjoy the decline.