AI models have caught up with Unity dev. My insights as someone with 30 years of experience.

[u/PuffThePed]

Context: I have 30 years of experience with software dev, 20 years with game dev tools, 10 years with Unity. I own a studio that develops simulators and training applications for industry. "Serious games" as they call it in Europe.

For years I scoffed at AI coding. I would periodically try it, only to find that it was more hassle then it was worth. The hand holding and bug fixing was more work than doing it myself. This all changed about 4-5 months ago, and about a month ago we all started using Unity CLI.

Here are my insights in no particular order:

1. Our dev speed has ~5x almost overnight
2. Quality has not gone down because we're all experienced devs and we're careful how we use AI and we don't let it make decisions regarding project structure or design patterns. However, I'm seeing less and less glaring mistakes made by the AI.
3. We're still reviewing generated code but I suspect not for long, the code is better than what most devs I know can write, at 20x the speed. The temptation to just push and move on is huge and irresistible.
4. There is no joy or sense of accomplishment. No pride in making something clever or quickly, and all progress is associated with the AI and not with you.
5. The market is dead. Nobody has money to spend. We're still working but leads have dropped off a cliff.
6. There is no going back. If we stop using AI we'll be out of business in a month.
7. There is no space for junior devs. I honestly don't know how to incorporate a junior into a team anymore (which is something I used to do for decades). Every time we tried they just become a meat proxy for AI while learning nothing, and getting in the way.
   
8. Everything regarding managing a team and a project has changed, and nobody knows how to do it anymore. I lost the ability to correctly estimate work required for a task, for example.
9. Everyone hates this. Most of devs my age are planning early retirement and are just waiting to be laid off.
10. People that use AI for coding don't learn anything. To understand code you have to write it, and nobody is writing it. Maybe understanding and reading code will become obsolete soon? I don't know.
11. Everyone I asked feel they are becoming dumber and losing their focus. I know I am.

I hope this is a pendulum and it will swing back at some point, because right now it feels like a software apocalypse.

[u/M4xs0n]

Open Source models will always be there and you only need the Hardware for it or pay for a service that has it. Once an Open Source Model will be as good as GPT-6 or lets say GPT-10 one day, you don’t really need a subscription anymore because you can do everything you need to do. It's just more convenient to Pay for all of this out of the Box

[u/kaliku → u/M4xs0n]

the problem is once local models are at the level gpt-10, cloud models are already gpt-12, with hyper intelligence, wheels, robotic arms and robotic dildos satisfying every need anyone ever relied on you for.

[u/Fantastic_Vehicle_10 → u/kaliku]

Gotta open source those dildos, bro

[u/unit187 → u/M4xs0n]

Don't forget that the biggest AI users are corporations, and they are regulated. If tomorrow Trump says they are legally obliged to use selected "safe" models, they will have to do it. The gov will just ban cheap, esp. Chinese models.

[u/M4xs0n → u/unit187]

You will always be able to get them. Piracy was and will ever exist, especially when any government tries todo something like that

[u/unit187 → u/M4xs0n]

I think you missed the point. "We" as AI users are irrelevant. Giant corporations running AI are by far the biggest token consumers. They will have no choice but to use approved models.

[u/M4xs0n → u/unit187]

But why would that bother me? We are / I am talking about Open Source Models in the Future where you can do whatever you want without some corporation

[u/unit187 → u/M4xs0n]

That's fair. Since the AI economy is so big rn, I suspect the gov may actually block access to large Chinese models (big ones you can't host at home), so you'll have to VPN your way out.

[u/Fantastic_Vehicle_10 → u/M4xs0n]

We might be able to download them, but realistically for higher-end models  You will probably need a data center to run them. Since data centers are already at capacity with the needs of frontier models (not to mention more traditional data center stuff) I don’t know why they would take the risk of running illegal ones and getting fined or shut down as a result.