The Gojo Effect
In Jujutsu Kaisen, there’s this concept of the King of Sorcerers—a force that trumps all, defeats anyone he touches: Gojo Satoru.
I want to talk about one specific part of the series—the birth of Gojo Satoru. When he was born, even as a kid, it shifted the balance of the world:
- Sorcerers who used to be decent were now trash
- Sorcerers who were great were now just decent
- Curses became more powerful across the board to compensate
This was the power of Gojo Satoru’s very existence. He was so paramount to anything anyone had ever seen before that everyone had to scramble to become better—just to attempt to match him.
In the same way Gojo's birth forced the world to evolve or die, AI’s emergence is forcing humanity to adapt—or become obsolete.
The Fear of AI
As a freshman in college, I was horrified about AI. Its potential seemed limitless—seeing it effortlessly craft code that would take me hours, even days to write. I thought:
“I’m done for.”
“My value as a person is gone.”
Now, maybe there’s something to be said about the toxicity of tying your self-worth to productivity. But I’m a person—ultimately, my goal in this life is to create. If a machine can do that better than me... what am I doing here?
But as I grew familiar with AI, its limitations became painfully apparent—and so did mine. AI can be faster for pre-solved problems, but its solutions are what the internet beautifully coined:
“AI slop.”
Slop, Startups, and the Current Reality
AI as it is now is an incredibly useful tool for programmers. It has turned the world on its head—productivity through the roof, tech sector more profitable than it’s ever been in history.
That being said, profits don’t mean quality. They just mean there’s enough output to make money.
If anyone looks under the hood at the code these startups and companies are pushing nowadays, they’ll soon realize a lot of it is complete dogshit.
AI Art: Tool or Trash?
This is a very controversial topic nowadays.
I think AI art serves as nothing more than common slop—same as AI code. Even with the best computing optimizations, training data, and hardware on the market, it still can’t really match a talented artist.
Of course, corporations that want to cut costs don’t really care and will absolutely use it when convenient. But in terms of those distinguished in their field—they’re fine.
It’ll be a long time before AI authorship of any kind can properly mimic human ingenuity in any real capacity.
The Road Ahead
I’m not naive. Like humans, AI will grow. Humans will continue to iterate on it so it can phase out more and more of the labor force.
I believe the end goal of venture capital is to drive labor costs down toward full automation. I don’t know how they plan to hold power once jobs are eliminated—maybe a last-minute solution like scraps and bread UBI or whatever. Only time will tell.
The Bigger Question
All things considered, the rise of AI is a wake-up call for many.
Doing the bare minimum is no longer enough in this economy, and the greed of capital has revealed itself in full force.
So how will you respond to AI?
Do you long for the world before you felt this unstoppable force making you and your work feel insignificant—and call for its erasure?
Or do you accept AI—and are you confident in your ability to surpass it?
My Position
Personally, I’m somewhere in between.
I think AI is a great evil in the wrong hands—but a powerful tool if we wield it with care.
I envision both a utopia where cancer is cured, medicine is affordable and accessible, and no one has to work if they don’t want to. That’s the productivity AI affords—but that’s not a capitalist future. That’s a leftist utopia.
The path we’re on now? That’s a techno-feudalist capitalist hellscape.
If AI stays in the hands of venture capital and big tech, the modern worker will be lucky to survive off scraps once their job is automated away.
Final Thought
Ultimately, it’s up to the collective to shape the future they actually deserve.
You’ve seen the writing on the wall.
Now what kind of future will you build?