That's sad, but believable.

My previous employer had this one young guy who wrote some incredible code for a calibration system. Totally custom, one-of-a-kind programs that did some very technical things. I had the pleasure of using the system. He wasn't around anymore because he had already left to go get payed more of what he was worth, and now he's a legend amongst many of my ex-coworkers. In general, I think if a programmer is talented and ambitious enough, they can rise through the ranks, or seek other opportunities. But luck is a thing, too.

These overly simple programming jobs will someday face an elimination similar to the type we are going to see with truckers, cab drivers, etc. when driver-less cars are widely adopted in the nearer future. Machine-learning algorithms, and eventually true AI, will replace low-level programmers and (probably) quickly progress to skillsets beyond that of humans, and then even large teams of humans.

So to some extent I do have a fear of AI, but I think that's healthy. Since no one's asking, I won't give an estimate for the dates of any of my predictions, but they're not as soon as /r/fyoochurology's.

P.S. this is not my domain so feel free to school me, that's what Hubski's best for.

P.P.S. is it paranoia (besides being obviously futile) to require by law that all AI developments are conducted on networks entirely isolated from the internet?