The new language of AI tech workers

Summary

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.

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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.

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

Transcript

[A]

NPR.

[B]

There is a paradox going on in Silicon Valley right now. There is this absolute fire hose of cash pouring into the AI buildout from companies like Amazon and Microsoft. But at the same time, young tech workers are finding it hard to land a job. Jasmine's son is a tech writer who's been following this trend. She used to work for Substack and various tech companies, and one thing she's observed is a new dialect among tech workers in San Francisco that reveals a dog eat dog mindset.

[A]

If the world is going to split into the techno kings and the techno peasants, I better prove that I'm going to stay on top because I am high agency enough. I have the taste. I am996ing hard enough that I'm going to make it.

[B]

Hi agency996ing what do these terms mean? Jasmine's essay on the way Bay Area developers talk went viral recently, not just as a curiosity, but because many of these workers believe what they're experiencing could be a preview to what's coming for the rest of us. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darian Woods. Today on the show San Fran Slang, we comb through the jargon, the argo and the etymology of Silicon Valley in the AIs era and what it says about our present and our future.

[C]

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[B]

Jasmine's son calls her writing about the Bay Area tech community an anthropology of disruption. And to set the scene, I asked her where she actually did her anthropological observations. She said Twitter X, of course, but also house parties and spas.

[A]

Shortly before writing the piece, I was in Archimedes Banya, which is the Russian sauna on the outskirts of San Francisco. There are a lot of like, I guess, old Russian guys in there, but there's. It's also become a bit of a tech hotspot for tech workers to go to decompress, to socialize. And so I was there with probably 9 or 10, 20 something investors. Founders like AI people. It's clothing optional, so it's kind of an interesting vibe in 80% male.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

And they kind of just sit around and talk about AI.

[B]

Wow, that's. That's quite an image.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

So among all this, we're hearing a new language emerge. These terms themselves could be an indicator of the economic climate in Silicon Valley right now. So shall we dissect a few of them?

[A]

Let's do it.

[B]

First of all, high agency. What does this one mean?

[A]

High agency is a fun one. I'm hearing it everywhere these days. I think a person is high agency if they have a lot of personal initiative. They're very resourceful and they're really good at getting what they want and not even thinking about what roadblocks might be in the way. I think it also has an element of contrarianism in it. It's high agency to be able to define your goals for yourself, to not listen to what other people say is the default path or the good job. To not sort of put your resume in this Dropbox with 1000 other applications and competing. But actually 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. That is what it means to be high agency is like, I'm going to figure out a creative way to. To get what I want from the world.

[B]

It's interesting because we're reaching a world where intelligence is almost becoming commodified with artificial intelligence. And so this is something that chatbots don't really have, which is the drive to do something.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Next term, npc. Tell me what NPC means.

[A]

An NPC is a non player character. It's a term that comes from the world of video games. An NPC is the opposite of being high agency. It's somebody who has no grand missions of their own. They can't really deviate from the script they're given. They just are background characters. You are automatable is essentially what you're saying. You can be coded, you can be automated by a game designer. You don't have goals or ideas or creativity of your own.

[B]

Yeah, it's pretty brutal. Almost like you don't have a soul.

[A]

That is basically what people are saying. I think it's pretty mean to call people NPCs. I think in the essay, 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.

[B]

Which brings us to the next term, permanent underclass.

[A]

Permanent underclass is a crazy one. It is just so bleak. So there are all these tweets that I saw joking about the permanent underclass, and they usually went something along the lines of like, we only have five months to escape the permanent underclass. Like, you better work hard because you're going to get stuck in the permanent underclass. This guy Nick Carter on Twitter said, 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. This is the permanent underclass thing, and everyone I know subscribes to it. And so if that's true, then you are in a world where capital is the only thing that matters. If you can pay more money, you can basically run more instances of AI. You can sort of rent labor, and that is perfectly replicable. And so all of these jokes, they are really jokes about the permanent underclass, but they sort of reflect this, I think, economic anxiety that people don't know whether their skills are going to survive, what they think of as AGI.

[B]

And can you explain AGI?

[A]

AGI stands for Artificial General Intelligence. And it's the notion of an AI that can do any cognitive task that a human can is the definition. You think that AI will get to a point where there is nothing intellectual or cognitive that it cannot do. So excluding robotics and sort of like physical tasks, but any level of coding, any level of economics research, any level of illustration or creative, coming up with ideas for articles and stories like AI will be able to do.

[B]

So this foreboding of a potential permanent underclass leads us to our next term.996.

[A]

Yeah,996 stands for 9am to 9pm, six days a week. It's a work culture where the idea is that you were working those hours 9am to 9pm Six days a week.

[B]

That doesn't sound healthy.

[A]

No, it doesn't. It's a lot. It's a lot. It's funny because Silicon Valley used to. There was a time where people were playing Ping pong at work and advertising work, life balance and remote work. But no, everyone's back to the office and they're adding Saturdays too.996 is interesting because it came from China and Chinese big tech companies that mandated a 996 schedule during the 2000 and tens until so many employees started experiencing health problems and going to the ICU that the government instituted policies to formally ban 996. But it continues in informal ways. And San Francisco this year has, I suppose, decided that if they want to compete with the Chinese tech companies, they too should adopt this work practice.

[B]

So to recap, we have people being described as either high agency or opposite npc, which might or might not affect whether they end up in the permanent underclass. And some of the ways to avoid that are by working 996 hours. What does this discourse tell you about the hopes and fears of tech people in San Francisco and Silicon Valley right now?

[A]

I think there's a lot of interesting dissonance going on where people do believe that there will be inequality that's created by AGI, that there will be some people who are the automators and some people who are the automated. But rather than this leading to any sort of, you know, 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.

[B]

I think that this is super important because when you take a step back, you'll notice that a whole lot of behaviors in the corporate world are following what other people are doing. I think back to when Elon Musk cut thousands of staff at X or Twitter back then, and then suddenly all the other tech companies were doing the same thing and a lot of it just seemed to be following what other people were doing. And so if this is the language and the culture and the narratives being built up, it might explain some of the trends we're seeing around hyperscaling of AI data centers and the ways that people are choosing to forge their careers and the companies they found.

[A]

Yeah, I totally agree with that. 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. And so there is a bit of irony in that, I think.

[B]

Well, Jasmine sun, independent writer, thank you so much for joining the Indicator.

[A]

Thank you so much for having me.

[B]

Jasmine sun [e-mail] this episode was produced by Angel Carreras with engineering by Kwesi Lee. It was factored by Cierra Juarez. Kate Concannon edits the show and the indicator is a production of npr.

[C]

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