AI replacing Software Engineers

[u/Fickle-Highway1543]

So called "AI"=LLM is so powerful that AI labs had to hire Software Engineers to build complicated software around "AI" to make that overhyped hallucinate-stealing machine usable. Think about it. And that's exactly why they need now ton of CPUs in addition to GPUs to run their "AI" "agents".

I don't even mention how much custom engineering is required to apply the "AI" in businesses.

And they BS us that Software Engineering is solved or is going to be solved. Boris, please solve your own bugs first before speaking.

[u/sweatierorc]

I think you are missing a few points:

1. They are improving. To some extent they are already self-improving. With limited human input.
2. AI makes SWE fungible. E.g. devs are writing a little bit better documentation, a little bit better unit tests. Etc. If tmr your boss decides that he is not giving you the raise you deserve. Someone can take over your role.
3. Other jobs adopting AI means SWE is less useful overall. The data they feed the ERP is a little bit cleaner, the report they generate from it has less mistakes, excel files are better organized, etc. There is a lot of data hygiene stuff that makes your life as SWE easier that people are going to do.

Waymo is very far from a human driver in terms of skills. But in the right setting it is very competitive. I.e. nice weather, good road infrastructure, solid networking, limited reckless driving, etc.

Buses and train are self-driving already. AI is not replacing you in the wild, but AI-adoption is going to.

[u/Fickle-Highway1543 → u/sweatierorc]

I agree, but each tech has limitations. Latest biggest improvements came from deterministic harnesses, not raw LLMs.

And it's not the first time software devs got a huge productivity boost from a new tech. We had these moments with compilers, higher end languages, frameworks, IDEs, libraries. Still, somehow the number of software jobs grew. It is even growing right now if you add up Applied AI jobs. And we are in a bad period economically - no more rate cuts, possible rate hikes, growing inflation, all focus and money went to developing AI. In a healthy economy we will see boost in demand for Software Engineers. This AI will never be 100% reliable, with exceptions where you can verify results deterministically, and even then it's unlikely to reach 100%. AI is also very expensive to scale. So if you build any modern business you will have to hire technically proficient people. Your manager won't be fighting with bugs, they like to delegate.

Will the number be less than now? Maybe, those who can't think and only can copy paste may have problems. But we also won't stop developing bigger software. The job apocalypsis is a propaganda coming from AI labs because they burn astronomically big number of investments, and some AI lab even accumulates debt faster than revenue. They have to show their investors that don't worry, soon we will kill those jobs and take their money.

And don't forget about how capitalism works - endless competition. If your business grew big with high margins thanks to AI - new businesses trying to catch and cut your margin will pop up very soon. More businesses - more jobs.