staircase

AI boom is a poor choice of words, even though it's intentional. And I don't believe the article's starting paragraph

For more than three years, AI has propped up global trade and investment and pushed stock markets from the US to Asia to record highs.

However, there is a boom in investment in AI, whether that actually yields anything or not. I read the article as meaning derailing that.

The consequences outlined in the rest of the article look to be agnostic to productivity

This will likely increase PC component prices. May even stop production.

I'm personally OK with that if it derails AI, but I did just finish building my PC.

and some jokes just aren't funny

Does clean rooming also work the other way round? Where open source models can reverse engineer proprietary binaries, upon which one can make "clean" open source copies?

Are there not just going to be dozens of linux forks without age verification?

Or people just move to the distros that don't do this?

(Mac and Windows may be a lost cause?)

It doesn't even need to be a conspiracy yet. It's a slippery slope.

If I'd bought when you said this, things would be a little different

You make a good point. I read it as "people who aren't in thrall to the machine can take back control". The vast majority of people have little say in this show.

As @Quazatron says, those that are in thrall don't look particularly human.