Let’s imagine that AI will become cheaper and more efficient, it will not differ from humans in terms of the quality of its work, it will replace almost all intellectual workers, and only the operators of these AI models will have jobs, that is, one person or several people monitor the entire office of AI workers for a small salary. Yes, the AI bubble will burst, but the problems of ordinary people will only get worse from this, jobs will not return, no, automation will continue anyway.
Is it worth retraining as a mechanic, plumber or something like that?
Was that the first one? That was the 1700’s with, like, the first mechanical looms, so it’s doubtful people even realised everything was changing. The whole “all manual labour will be replaced” idea seems most prominent in the mid 20th century, like with The Jetsons, which is between the second and third, if you’re using this system.