Fear the Illusion, Not the Illusionist

The fear of a mechanical god is as old as the stories of the asuras creating mayavi—illusions—objects or scenes so convincing that even the gods were momentarily deceived.

- Anand Neelakantan

Today, as we digest the ominous predictions of tech prophets like Matt Shumer in The New York Times, we are witnessing a modern version of that same ancient panic. The prophecy is grim: Al is coming for the white-collar worker, the artist, and the engineer, leaving a trail of redundancy in its wake. But as I look at the market and technology today, I am reminded of 2000.

Just as investors today oscillate between existential dread and frenzied investment, the dotcom era saw similar visions of a world in which physical reality would evaporate overnight. A recent Bloomberg opinion piece rightly points out that this “AI panic” often ignores the facts. Markets thrive on hype, and corporations often downsize not because the machines have arrived, but in anticipation of rumours—a preemptive strike against a digital ghost. The reality is that despite decades of downsizing and technological leaps, we have yet to see a single complex product, like a full-length feature film, created entirely by AI that has achieved genuine theatrical or commercial success.