The mechanical loom produced a tangible good. That kind of automation was supposed to free people from menial work. Now they are trying to replace interesting work with human supervised slop, which is a stolen derivative work in the first place.

The loom wasn't centralized in four companies. Customers of textiles did not need an expensive subscription.

Obviously average people would benefit more if all that investment went into housing or in fact high speed railways. "AI" does not improve their lives one bit.