Pity the poor Seattle techie who was pulling in enough money to afford a multimillion-dollar house on Lake Washington, only to be made redundant by artificial intelligence. He must now sell his suddenly unaffordable, 7,000-square-foot mansion but cannot find a buyer because he is not the only aspiring tech gazillionaire to find himself made obsolete by AI.

Yes, the Puget Sound region’s luxury home market is in a big slump. In the most extreme example, one unlucky homeowner put his lakeside abode on the market in 2022 with an $85 million asking price. He was forced to unload it in May for a mere $38 million.

Most of the luxury market is composed of houses priced much lower than that, but those homes are still out of reach for all but a tiny few. A significant number of those tiny few are — or were — techies. But the industry is being revolutionized by AI and, while some are getting richer than ever before, many others who thought they had the best jobs in the world are facing unemployment, or, at least, a diminished income.

So, who is going to buy all these fancy houses now? Robots?

See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey

View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons

Editor’s note: Seattle Times Opinion no longer appends comment threads on David Horsey’s cartoons. Too many comments violated our community policies and reviewing the dozens that were flagged as inappropriate required too much of our limited staff time. You can comment via a Letter to the Editor. Please email us at letters@seattletimes.com and include your full name, address and telephone number for verification only. Letters are limited to 200 words.