Every conference keynote about artificial intelligence includes a slide about the Industrial Revolution. The speaker shows a picture of a 19th-century factory, makes a comparison to modern AI, and draws a reassuring conclusion: we adapted then, we will adapt now. The audience nods. The presentation moves on. And nobody mentions that the actual history is far more interesting — and far more instructive — than the cartoon version being presented.

The standard narrative goes like this: machines replaced manual labor, displaced workers found new jobs, and everyone ended up better off. This is broadly true over a 100-year timeline. It is almost entirely false over a 20-year timeline. The first two decades of industrialization in Britain were marked by wage stagnation, appalling working conditions, child labor on an industrial scale, and social upheaval that reshaped the political landscape of an entire continent.

The people using the Industrial Revolution as a comfort blanket for AI adoption are cherry-picking the ending and ignoring the middle. The middle is where we are right now. And the middle is where the most important decisions get made.