I got a couple of RP2040 boards recently and I'm amazed at how easy it is to just get stuff done. Between the native usb support and the circuit python support it's been a breeze. I just got a couple of boards up and running uart in a daisy chain. It was intimidating, but the circuitpython docs made it relatively simple.
I didn't read that as AI making energy, water, food and shelter cheaper. I read it as "technology (generally) making energy, water, food and shelter will determine how the AI driven job changes are received"
I think it's still the case. The 4ms happens if you call setTimeout nested several times. I don't know the exact limit. But it's 5-ish times where that kicks in IIRC.