“You’re nothing but a wire back silver number crunching CLANKER!”

Recently, a skit from TikTok user @vibestealer or Chaise have been going around, starting a trend of the word “Clanker” to use discriminately against robots. The word refers to 2008’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

These Tiktok skits range from introducing your significant other to your parents, getting fired from your job, microaggressions, and getting bullied in high school. Most of the TikToks are made by Gen Z, parodying real-life scenarios where the stereotypical Republicans, conservative boomers or “traditional” coworkers in the workplace who still carry internalised homophobia and racism—depicting a future where robots have become so ingrained with our daily lives that they are functioning individual members of society, living alongside humanity, similar to science fiction movies we watched growing up like Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and Blade Runner, even referencing the robot slurs from them.

Droidophobia is very evident in Star Wars, with a whole wiki page dedicated to it. Droids are banned from establishments, called names, treated with violence, and objectified. In the series, droids are hated for their involvement in wars and considered artificial beings as they are manufactured. However, in some unique cases, such as R2D2, C3PO, etc., robots can develop sentience, especially those that have lived alongside humans for long enough. They can have real relationships with human beings and a desire for self-preservation, fearing destruction.

However, Star Wars is science fiction. People still seem to believe that AI can develop sentience, so they are anthropomorphising AI into something it is not—a human being.

At the core of all this is Gen Z’s fear of AI “taking our jobs, our money, our art and eventually kill us”. Gen Z are, reportedly, more than twice as likely to report they experience stress and anxiety compared to Baby Boomers. And in another study, 36.6% of Gen Z and 39.3% of milllenials said they were “extremely” or “very” worried that AI could threaten their roles

People are also starting to be voice their concerns about reliance on AI, worried that more and more people are unable to function without it, with many Tiktoks were going viral with users expressing that they are unable to go about their daily lives, write an essay, get emotional support, write code, or even baking when ChatGPT’s server went down. Users are divided into those who continue to use ChatGPT despite knowing they are over-relying on AI, and those who hate the use of AI.

The thing is, AI will be everywhere and integrated into everything, whether you like it or not. What many Gen Zers fail to realise is that people fear their jobs will be replaced every generation. Agriculture machines didn’t make farmers lose their jobs. Millennials feared automation (like self-serving cashiers) would take their jobs. When lightbulbs were invented, people who carried water buckets and lanterns were afraid to lose their jobs. Automation has happened all the time in history, and every time, new opportunities open up. Humans will get to do more creative jobs.

Instead of seeing AI as the big bad wolf, we should focus on worsening labour rights, economic conditions and overall economic health. It’s not AI that will “take away” our jobs, it’s the corporations whose only desire is to cut as many costs as possible and maximise profit for themselves, which drives them to opt for AI instead of preserving healthy and safe working conditions for human employees.