A lot of the facts are shaky at best.

For starters, it has always been the merchant class that lobbied for monopoly and restrictions on trade. This fits the AI companies even better considering the recent pushes towards restrictions.

The industrious Revolution is also quite contested in its reasons. Falling wages in the period could very well account for the need to work more hours.

That said I consider myself a humanist and as such I want to believe that more intelligence available to humanity can only be a good thing if it is accessible in a fair way.