A UK perspective on this is that the AI trend, as described in the article, would quickly turn into a class divide. Many employers in AI/ML spaces seem to want postgraduate degrees. Often the academic entry requirements to such degrees aren't that high (usually a bachelors degree with an "ok" mark like a 2:2 or a 2:1 min in a related subject - not exactly sky high attainment criteria) but the financial barriers are relatively severe - far poorer finance options are available as compared to undergraduate degrees especially.<p>The dynamic then seems to be that while software development has been functioning as a relatively effective source of social mobility, if you can do the work you can create a decent career, the current AI wave threatens to pull up the ladder for many if this trend carries on as described.<p>That said I'm not too worried about it playing out like that yet, at least not in the medium term. I think industry is at some pinnacle of optimism around AI but don't quite realise that it's not a great fit for a lot of commercially relevant use cases like maintenance of existing code bases of more than trivial complexity and it's unlikely to be for a good while and where there is sensitivity to copyright. I think once that reality sets in there will be some degree of back-peddling.