You’ve been sold a lie. We all have. The tech industry promised us that artificial intelligence would be our personal savior, automating the soul-crushing drudgery so we could work three days a week, spend Fridays at the park, and finally have time to breathe. But Meta just pulled the mask off the utopian AI narrative, and the reality is much uglier.
Artificial intelligence isn’t here to set you free. It’s here to squeeze more out of you.
In a recent internal memo, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth laid bare the actual corporate strategy for AI. When productivity goes up because an AI tool writes your code or drafts your emails in half the time, what happens to the other half? You don’t get to log off early. You don’t get a raise. You get handed another task.
The promise of technology was that we would work less. The reality of management is that they will just expect more.
Let’s be clear about what this is. This isn’t some technological inevitability. It’s a deliberate, calculated choice. When a machine lets you do the work of two people, the math is simple: you could work four hours instead of eight, or you could produce twice as much for the exact same salary. Bosworth is telling you exactly which option Meta is picking.
We want to believe that AI is a benevolent force, a digital butler taking out the trash so we can focus on high-level thinking. But look at the incentives. Corporations exist to maximize output. If you give a company a tool that makes humans 50% faster, they won’t cut your hours by 50%. They’ll just demand 150% of the output. They will turn the dial up until you break.
Productivity gains don’t flow to the worker anymore. They flow to the quarterly earnings report.
This changes everything about how you should view your career. Stop waiting for the AI utopia where your job gets easier. The lever of AI isn’t being used to lift you up; it’s being used to press you down further into the corporate machine. If your company gets a productivity boost from AI, you need to be the one capturing that value—through higher pay, shorter days, or your own independent leverage—because they will not hand it to you out of goodwill.
If AI makes you twice as productive, don’t expect a thank you. Expect twice the workload.
The future of work isn’t a three-day weekend. It’s a treadmill that just had its speed turned up to maximum. Meta just told you the rules of the game. It’s time to stop playing for their team and start playing for your own.
FAQ
Q: Isn't it normal for companies to want more output from new tech?
A: Yes, but historically, massive productivity gains eventually led to shorter workweeks and better conditions (like the weekend). What's new is the explicit refusal to even consider sharing the gains with labor.
Q: What should I do about this as an employee?
A: Capture the value yourself. If AI makes you faster, don't tell your boss you're done at noon. Use that extra time to build your own leverage, learn new skills, or start a side project. Never give the surplus back for free.
Q: Is AI actually going to lead to mass unemployment then?
A: Not immediately, but it will lead to mass burnout. Before AI replaces you entirely, companies will use it to expect the output of three people from one exhausted human.