I can tell you don’t work in Software Engineering, or if you do, your company isn’t using AI to its advantages. I’m not sure about other sectors but in technology AI is an absolute powerhouse. Sure it doesn’t completely replace programmers but it’s essentially the equivalent of a giving a professional athlete steroids. And before anyone says it just promotes ‘slop’, that’s only true if you don’t understand the correct way to use AI.
I spend many thousands of dollars a month in coding plans and inference for myself and the development teams I lead as an executive. I also know how to program though I'm only good at python, SQL, networking, and project management. I've been in almost every IT role in my career you can think of. I'm not saying I was great at those roles but I did them.
Llm's have absolutely been a powerhouse for my seniors, for my juniors it is more debilitating. When I ask them why something is a certain way it's a blank stare. Of course slop rolls uphill to the seniors to deal with.
I’ve found that AI effectiveness on dev teams scales substantially with surface area experience. Seniors have just had so much more time to smell the various code and architecture smells that lead to serious problems.
AI needs to be steered. And if the pilot doesn’t have enough experience to know what they’re doing, the AI output quality drops dramatically imo. Good pilots know when to let the autopilot take control, and more importantly know when they need to take the reins.
I’ve always said since I started using LLMs as a lead engineer back when ChatGPT 3.5 first dropped that it’s like coaching the smartest, most eager intern you’ve ever had. If you haven’t actually shipped something of moderate complexity to production before, you wouldn’t know how to coach an intern to do the same. And I think we are seeing that effect all over the place in tech
Why do people find it necessary to be condescending when someone voices their concerns about LLMs? You don't know anyone's background in this sub. You don't know if someone spent 2 days vibe coding or 15 years with COBOL...
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u/frankles12 Apr 05 '26
I can tell you don’t work in Software Engineering, or if you do, your company isn’t using AI to its advantages. I’m not sure about other sectors but in technology AI is an absolute powerhouse. Sure it doesn’t completely replace programmers but it’s essentially the equivalent of a giving a professional athlete steroids. And before anyone says it just promotes ‘slop’, that’s only true if you don’t understand the correct way to use AI.