i can also share some insight from a tech startup i worked in until a week ago, no layoffs yet. there was a lot of fear in the air, but in general, everyone, including the leadership, the developers, and the artists, generally lived in a state of serious denialism. they literally keep just laughing about whatever ai tools are popping out, sharing whatever buggy and weird gifs they find (instead of the actually great material the tools can produce), trying to somehow maintain their old world view i guess.

while (generative) ai poses a fundamental business risk for the company and most of the jobs, there was absolutely no deep conversations about it. nobody is taking it seriously, because they don't want to. instead of accepting and adapting, they're doubling down on their obviously wrong path and burning everyone out while doing it.