Speculating here, but I don't believe that the government would have the time or organization to do this. Widespread political unrest caused by job losses would be the first step. Almost as soon as there is some type of AI that can replace mass amounts of workers, people will be out on the streets - most people don't have 1-2 months of living expenses saved up. At that point, the government would realize that SHTF - but it's too late, people would be protesting / rioting in droves - doesn't matter how many drones you can produce, or whether or not you can psychologically manipulate people when all they want is... food.

I could be entirely wrong, but it feels like if AI were to get THAT good, the government would be affected just as much as the working class. We'd more likely see total societal collapse rather than the government maintaining power and manipulating / suppressing the people.

I am not sure AI will be that much more different or effective than what has been done by rich elites forever. There are already gigantic agencies and research centres focusing on opinion manipulation. And these are working - just look at how poor masses are voting for policies that are clearly against them (lowering taxes for the rich etc).

But all these voters still have their place in the world and don't have free time to do anything. I don't think people are so powerless once you really displace big potion of them.

For example look at people here - everywhere you can read how it's harder to find programming job. Companies are roleplaying the narrative that they don't need programmers anymore. Do you think this army of jobless programmers will become mind controlled by tech they themselves created? Or they will use their free time to do something about their situation?

Displacing/canceling/deleting/killing individuals in society works because most people wave their and thinking this couldn't happen to them. One you start getting into bigger potions of people the dynamic is different.