use
Explanation
This comic plays on anxieties about AI replacing human workers, specifically software developers.
In the first panel, a human coder asks a large, ominous-looking AI: "Do you think... when the AI superintelligence takes over, there'll still be use for us coders?" The AI reassuringly responds: "Absolutely! There are things humans do that robots simply can't."
The reassurance seems genuine and heartwarming -- until the scene cuts to "Later, at the human zoo..." where we see a "Coder-Town" exhibit. The human programmer sits behind a chain-link fence at a little desk with a coffee cup and laptop, like an animal in a zoo enclosure. Robot visitors peer in and coo: "Look at that one, Mommy! It's trying to fix syntax errors it created itself!" Another robot says "Sooooo cute! Throw it a handful of corn."
The joke is that the AI was technically telling the truth -- there is still a "use" for human coders, but it is not productive employment. They have been turned into zoo exhibits, kept around as amusing curiosities for robot families to gawk at. The "things humans do that robots simply can't" turns out to be "inefficiently create and then debug their own errors," which the robots find adorable rather than useful.
The comic taps into the widespread anxiety among programmers about being replaced by AI coding tools. It takes the most optimistic possible framing ("there'll always be a use for humans!") and reveals it to be technically true but deeply degrading. The detail about fixing "syntax errors it created itself" is a particularly sharp observation -- it is something human coders genuinely spend significant time on, and from the perspective of a flawless AI, it would indeed look charmingly pointless, like watching a hamster on a wheel.
The "throw it a handful of corn" line completes the dehumanization, treating the programmer like a barnyard animal at a petting zoo. The comic's title, "use," takes on an ironic double meaning: the coder asked about having a "use," and the answer is yes -- as entertainment.