Luddites Didn't Stop Industrial Machinery; Cognitive Workers Won't Stop AI

The comparison between the Luddites and today’s concerns about artificial intelligence arguably represents the same pattern we also saw with the personal computer and the internet.

What might be different in each case are the types of workers who fear replacement: factory workers; clerical workers; retail service providers or cognitive workers. 

The Luddites were English textile workers (1811–1816) who protested a change in the production system, namely machinery substitution that:

• Reduced wages

• Replaced highly skilled workers with lower-paid labor

• Lowered product quality

• Shifted economic gains from workers to owners. 

AI is different only in that it seems poised to affect cognitive workers, where industrial production affected “cottage industry.”

Factor	Luddites	AI
Type of labor affected	Manual and craft labor	Cognitive and creative labor
Speed of adoption	Decades	Potentially years
Skill barrier	Replaced artisans with less-skilled workers	May replace both junior and senior knowledge workers
Scope	Textile industry	Nearly all industries

The advent of the personal computer raised concerns that secretaries and typists would disappear. That mostly did happen. 

The internet raised fears of a loss of jobs in:

• Retail stores

• Newspapers

• Intermediaries (travel agents, brokers.

That did happen. 

Across mechanization, PCs, the internet, and AI, the same cycle appears, and some jobs will, in fact, disappear. Others will be created. 

Stage	Typical Reaction
New technology emerges	Excitement and skepticism
Job loss becomes visible	Fear and resistance
Productivity rises	Economic gains accumulate
New industries emerge	Employment shifts
Society adapts	Technology becomes ordinary

But the translation will not be painless:

• Some workers and firms lose

• Workers may experience prolonged wage pressure and displacement

• But new jobs will be created, as well. 

Technology	Dominant Fear	Long-Term Outcome
Textile machinery	Skilled artisans replaced	Cheaper goods, industrial growth, labor upheaval
Personal computers	Office jobs disappear	Major productivity gains and new occupations
Internet	Intermediaries and media collapse	Massive disruption plus entirely new sectors
AI	Cognitive work automated	?

Some disruption is going to happen, and people will not like it.