A UK perspective on this is that the AI trend, as described in the article, would quickly turn into a class divide. Many employers in AI/ML spaces seem to want postgraduate degrees. Often the academic entry requirements to such degrees aren't that high (usually a bachelors degree with an "ok" mark like a 2:2 or a 2:1 min in a related subject - not exactly sky high attainment criteria) but the financial barriers are relatively severe - far poorer finance options are available as compared to undergraduate degrees especially.

The dynamic then seems to be that while software development has been functioning as a relatively effective source of social mobility, if you can do the work you can create a decent career, the current AI wave threatens to pull up the ladder for many if this trend carries on as described.

That said I'm not too worried about it playing out like that yet, at least not in the medium term. I think industry is at some pinnacle of optimism around AI but don't quite realise that it's not a great fit for a lot of commercially relevant use cases like maintenance of existing code bases of more than trivial complexity and it's unlikely to be for a good while and where there is sensitivity to copyright. I think once that reality sets in there will be some degree of back-peddling.