From $150K Metaverse Engineer to Food Delivery in an RV: The Human Cost of AI's Rise
Shawn Kay, a former Metaverse engineer earning $150K annually, now delivers food while living in a trailer. His journey reveals how AI's rapid rise is reshaping the tech industry and displacing skilled professionals. From Six Figures to Struggling: How AI Upended a Veteran Engineer’s Life Shawn Kay once lived the tech dream—earning $150,000 a year, building the virtual future, and working at the cutting edge of the Metaverse. Today, he lives in a small RV in upstate New York, selling items on eBay and delivering food to get by. It’s not the path the 42-year-old software engineer, with over two decades of experience in tech, ever imagined. But in a world reshaped by the explosive rise of generative AI, Kay’s story is becoming increasingly common. From the Metaverse to the Margins Just a year ago, Kay was developing advanced applications in virtual reality, AI, and web technologies. His work wasn’t just technical—it was visionary. Like many, he believed the Metaverse would ...