The Indicator from Planet Money — "The New Language of AI Tech Workers"

Date: October 27, 2025
Host: Darian Woods (NPR)
Guest: Jasmine Sun (Tech Writer, Independent columnist)
Episode Theme:
This episode explores the emerging jargon and cultural mindset of Bay Area tech workers amid the AI boom. While Silicon Valley is flush with investment, young tech job seekers face increasing difficulties. Jasmine Sun discusses how the language tech workers use reveals an anxious, competitive atmosphere—one that could foreshadow trends across the broader workforce as artificial intelligence rapidly evolves.

Episode Overview

• Main Theme:
  Explores the new vocabulary and internal narratives circulating among San Francisco's AI-focused tech workers, offering insight into the economic and cultural realities driving them. Jasmine Sun draws from her viral essay on the subject and her own observations, arguing that this lingo reflects deep-seated professional anxieties and a heightened risk/reward culture in the age of AI.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. On-the-Ground “Anthropology” of San Francisco Tech (02:45–03:37)

• Jasmine Sun describes her approach as an “anthropology of disruption,” gathering observations not just from social media, but in-person at local spas and parties frequented by tech insiders.
• Memorable vignette:

  “I was in Archimedes Banya, … a Russian sauna … but it’s also become a bit of a tech hotspot … with probably 9 or 10, 20-something investors, founders, like AI people. It’s clothing optional, so it’s kind of an interesting vibe, and 80% male.” (03:02–03:34)

2. Deconstructing the New Silicon Valley Jargon

a. “High Agency” (03:54–04:42)

• Denotes an individual’s resourcefulness, autonomy, and ability to creatively circumvent obstacles (as opposed to submitting to standard processes).
• Jasmine:

  “A person is high agency if they have a lot of personal initiative … It’s very high agency instead to show up to the office with a box of the CTO’s favorite chocolates or something like that.” (03:56–04:42)

• Contrarianism is part of it: defining goals for oneself, not following set paths.

b. “NPC” (Non-Player Character) (04:55–05:44)

• Imported from gaming, this is the antonym of “high agency.” An NPC is “automatable,” lacking initiative and direction—a background player.
• Jasmine:

  “An NPC is the opposite of being high agency… You are automatable... You don’t have goals or ideas or creativity of your own.” (04:59–05:26)
  “I think it’s pretty mean to call people NPCs. I joke that the NPCs are still stuck playing LinkedIn games and watching Marvel movies, totally blind to the technological tsunami that’s going to come for them.” (05:29–05:44)

c. “Permanent Underclass” (05:44–06:54)

• A bleak term referencing the anxiety that most workers could soon be made permanently economically obsolete by AI.
• Jasmine:

  “We only have five months to escape the permanent underclass … everyone I know believes we have a few years maximum until the value of labor totally collapses and capital accretes to owners on a runaway loop.” (05:48–06:29)

d. “AGI” (Artificial General Intelligence) (06:54–07:28)

• The point at which AI is capable of performing any cognitive task a human can.
• Jasmine:

  “You think that AI will get to a point where there is nothing intellectual or cognitive that it cannot do … any level of coding, … economics research, … illustration or creative … AI will be able to do.” (06:55–07:28)

e. “996” (Work Culture Reference) (07:34–08:31)

• Denotes a grueling schedule: 9am to 9pm, six days a week. Adopted from Chinese tech companies, now creeping into US tech as firms compete in AI.
• Jasmine:

  “996 stands for 9am to 9pm, six days a week… there was a time where people were playing Ping pong at work … but now, everyone’s back to the office and they’re adding Saturdays too.” (07:34–08:17)

3. Sociological and Economic Implications (08:31–10:03)

• Jasmine observes a meritocratic “dog-eat-dog” panic: workers feel they must prove they won’t fall into the “NPC” bin or “permanent underclass” by working intensely and demonstrating “high agency.”
• This language and culture may drive further inequality, rather than solidarity or reform.
• Jasmine:

  “Rather than this leading to any sort of … political consciousness or interest in activism or slowing down, I think the way that tech culture is reacting is by everybody working as hard as they can to prove that they are going to end up on top of that divide.” (08:55–09:22)

• Host Darian Woods notes the trend-following nature of Silicon Valley business culture—from mass layoffs to AI arms races—and how these discourses shape career strategies and company founding.

4. Irony and In-Group Culture (10:03–10:21)

• Jasmine shares a self-aware observation about groupthink, even among “anti-NPC” types:

  “It is funny how much people are trying to prove that they’re not an NPC by all going to the same parties and the same berries classes and drinking the same Celsiuses. So there is a bit of irony in that, I think.” (10:03–10:21)

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On High Agency:

  “It’s very high agency instead to show up to the office with a box of the CTO’s favorite chocolates or something like that.” — Jasmine Sun (04:34)

• On the Harshness of “NPC”:

  “You are automatable … you don’t have goals or ideas or creativity of your own.” — Jasmine Sun (05:02) “I think it’s pretty mean to call people NPCs … playing LinkedIn games and watching Marvel movies, totally blind to the technological tsunami that’s going to come for them.” — Jasmine Sun (05:29)

• On Permanent Underclass Anxiety:

  “Everyone I know believes we have a few years maximum until the value of labor totally collapses and capital accretes to owners on a runaway loop.” — Jasmine Sun, quoting Nick Carter (06:12)

• On Silicon Valley’s Response:

  “Rather than this leading to any sort of … political consciousness or interest in activism or slowing down, … everybody working as hard as they can to prove that they are going to end up on top of that divide.” — Jasmine Sun (08:55)

• On Irony in Tech Worker Behavior:

  “People are trying to prove that they’re not an NPC by all going to the same parties and the same berries classes and drinking the same Celsiuses.” — Jasmine Sun (10:08)

Key Takeaways

• Despite massive AI investment, young tech workers feel anxious about being rendered obsolete.
• A competitive—sometimes even cutthroat—culture has spawned new slang expressing fears about automation, loss of status, and the need to prove exceptionalism (“high agency”).
• Ironically, behaviors meant to signal individuality often become herd-like.
• This linguistic trend is both a symptom and driver of wider economic polarization—and could preview future dynamics for others in the workforce as AI advances.

Guest plug:
Find Jasmine Sun’s writing at jasmine.substack.com (10:27)