Once a metaverse engineer who used to make USD 150,000 (Rs 1.28 crore), this person now lives in a trailer and works as a food delivery person to make ends meet. This person's story is yet another casualty of the meteoric rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Shawn Kay, a 42-year-old senior software engineer with two decades of experience, never anticipated to find himself living in a small RV in upstate New York, scraping by on eBay sales and food delivery gigs.
After losing his job in April, Kay has found himself on the wrong side of a fast changing tech industry — ChatGPT is thriving and once-hot industries like the metaverse are becoming frigid.
“The silence wasn’t temporary this time,” Kay was quoted in a Fortune report, “It’s quieter, colder, more unsettling.”
Despite submitting 800 applications, he has received fewer than ten interview opportunities, the majority of which have been with AI agents rather than humans.
Kay, who has experience with Virtual Reality (VR), AI, and web development, used to thrive in cutting-edge employment. The boom in generative AI, however, has turned the tables.
"I'm not anti-AI," he explains. "I am an AI maximalist. I believe in its potential. But it's being used wrong — replacing talent instead of empowering it,” he said.
He cautions that what is happening now is only the beginning. He sees himself as a signal, not an aberration, a hint of what millions more may face as firms replace workers to slash expenses.
“It’s not about smarter machines — it’s about smaller thinking. “Businesses aren’t scaling innovation. They’re shrinking ambition,” he says.
The numbers back up his worries. Formal interviews are being phased out, hiring processes are becoming more automated, and resumes are frequently filtered before being read by a human.
Kay is now considering technical certificates or obtaining a commercial driver's license — anything to boost his income. But even upskilling takes money, which he no longer has.
