--- title: "A Software Engineer Who Was Replaced by AI Was Forced to Live in a Trailer After Getting Rejected from 800 Jobs" description: "A former software engineer of 20 years is sounding the alarm on the reality of AI taking over the workplace." date: "2025-05-15" modified: "2025-05-15" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/software-engineer-trailer-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" tags: - "ai" - "engineering" - "labor" --- # A Software Engineer Who Was Replaced by AI Was Forced to Live in a Trailer After Getting Rejected from 800 Jobs ![A former software engineer of 20 years is sounding the alarm on the reality of AI taking over the workplace.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Though even the best AI models struggle to solve the [majority of coding problems](), that didn't stop one man's penny-pinching employers from replacing him with the tech anyway. Shawn Kay was a software engineer of 20 years who went from earning $150,000 in upstate New York to living out of a trailer, after he says his former boss outsourced his job to AI. As [*Fortune* reports](), he now does odd jobs to make ends meet, like gig work on meal delivery apps, and flipping his stuff on eBay. To make matters worse, Kay's been spat out into a noxious job market for highly trained tech workers. Out of 800 job applications he's placed since losing his income, he's only received ten interviews. As if to add insult to injury, a handful of those, he says, have been with AI. "I feel super invisible. I feel unseen. I feel like I'm filtered out before a human is even in the chain," Kay told *Fortune*. At 42 years old, the engineer has been around long enough to prove his mettle. He's survived hiring downturns before, like the 2008 global financial crisis, and the brief recession brought about by the pandemic. This time, something's different. Though AI makes a great boogeyman — a narrative which, coincidentally, helps AI tycoons convince lawmakers to let the industry [regulate itself]() — there are other factors at play in the tech job market. During the pandemic, tech companies became [more profitable]() than they had been in years. Fueled by a society that quickly became dependent on tech and software companies to keep things afloat, the sector [grew substantially]() throughout the public health crisis, triggering an industry-wide hiring spree. But as COVID-19 abated, many of those same companies found they had over-hired. Soon, [waves of layoffs]() began rocking tech workers, coinciding with a flood of fresh STEM graduates entering the scene. That brought about a chaotic job market, where work is hard to find, and job quality is [only getting worse](). AI certainly didn't help things. Many tech moguls bought into promises that the buzzy new tech is going to "revolutionize work" — despite [plenty of evidence]() that it's far from ready. It also irreparably damaged the job search; those seeking work like Kay now have to stand out amidst a [sea of AI spam]() to have their resumes even read by a human. So, where are all the high-value tech jobs going? The answer, it seems, is to the bottom. While error-prone AI isn't ready to go it alone, it *is* ready to increase the productivity of untrained workers. A [growing body of scholarship]() on AI and labor suggests that AI isn't simply taking over — it's enabling tech corporations to [outsource]() high-paying jobs in the West to low-wage workers in the [global south](). This shift in tech job quality could be a part of the reason why we see AI having an [effect]() on the tech labor market, despite the fact that 59 percent of developers experience [consistent deployment errors]() when using AI to code. Why pay one worker in the US $150,000 a year, plus benefits, to sort through junk AI code when you could outsource a dozen workers in [the Philippines]() for the same cost? The dystopian tale that AI is making us obsolete is bad enough, but it's nothing compared to the reality: AI isn't taking over the tech industry; it's turning it into a sweatshop. **More on labor:** [*Startup Investors Foaming at the Mouth To Carve Up Your Job With AI*]() ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()