We Were Programmed to Hate AI. Corporate America Did the Rest.

Your company didn't downsize because of AI. They downsized because of a bad quarter, a bloated org chart, or a board breathing down their neck... and AI made a convenient press release. Don't take my word for it. Sam Altman said it. The National Bureau of Economic Research said it. Even the companies doing it are starting to admit it. But here's the part that gets overlooked: we were already primed to believe the worst about AI long before the layoffs started. Sixty years of Hollywood told us AI was coming for us. HAL 9000. Skynet. The Entity. The story was written before the technology even existed. So when the headlines hit, we didn't question them. We confirmed them. In this episode of The Rational Workforce, I'm breaking down how pop culture installed our fear of AI, why this tech disruption is playing out differently than every one that came before it, and why the companies using AI as a scapegoat are making a catastrophic mistake they won't be able to walk back. The technology isn't the villain. The people exploiting it are.