English isn’t my first language, so I often use translation services. I feel like using them is a lot like vibe coding — very useful, but still something that needs to be checked by a human.
AI isn't ready to replace just about anybody's job, and probably never will be technically, economically or legally viable.
That said, the c-suit class are certainly going to try. Not only do they dream of optimizing all human workers out of every workforce, they also desperately need to recoup as much of the sunk cost that they've collectively dumped into the technology.
Take OpenAI for example, they lost something like $5,000,000,000 last year and are probably going to lose even more this year. Their entire business plan relies on at least selling people on the idea that AI will be able to replace human workers. The minute people realize that OpenAI isn't going to conquer the world, and instead end up as just one of many players in the slop space, the entire bottom will fall out of the company and the AI bubble will burst.
Never? That's a long time. How specific a definition of AI are you using?
Well if you're that deep into losses, spending 10M in marketing goes a long way.
I had a dude screaming pretty much the same thing at me yesterday on here (on a different account), despite the fact that I'm senior-level, near the top of my field and that all the objective data as well as anecdotal reports from tons of other people says otherwise. Like, okay buddy, sure. People seem to just like fighting things online to feel better about themselves, even if the thing they're fighting doesn't really exist.
I'm a senior BA working on a project to replace some outdated software with a new booking management and payment system. One of our minor stakeholders is an overly eager tech bro who insists on bringing up AI in every meeting, he's gone as far as writing up and sending proposals to myself and project leads.
We all just roll our eyes when a new email arrives. Especially when there's almost no significant detail in these proposals, it's all conjecture based of what he's read online...on tech bro websites.
Oh and the best part, this guy has no experience in system development or design or anything AI related. He doesn't even work in IT. But he researchs AI in his spare time and uses it as a side hustle....
AI is a tool, Ashish is 100% correct in that it may do some things for developers but ultimately still needs to be reviewed by people who know what they're doing. This is closer to the change from punch cards to writing code directly on a computer than making software developers obsolete.
People who think AI will replace X job either don't understand X job or don't understand AI.
For basically everyone at least 9 in 10 people you know are... bless their hearts...not winning a nobel prize any time soon.
My wife works a people-facing job, and I could never do it. Most people don't understand most things. That's not to say most people don't know anything, but there are not a lot of polymaths out and about.
It's both.
This is the correct answer.
Yeah, particularly with CEOs. People don't understand that in an established company (not a young startup), the primary role of the CEO is to take blame for unpopular decisions and resign or be fired so it would seem like the company is changing course.
Ha I never thought of CEOs this way but now so many things make sense. Especially things being exactly as they were when CEOs change, but with a mountain of meaningless changes that never do any good.
Not that I ever thought they know what they were doing, but now I get what they're used for.
Yup. It's kinda my conspiracy theory, but also, it's really not, it's like a public secret at this point.
They don't get these huuuuge golden parachutes for nothing. They get it precisely because they need to take the fall at some point, and if the fall is big enough, they might not even get a new job at a similar level.
It's a disgusting system, but I'm not trying to absolve CEOs of anything here. They very much know what they're getting into when they sign contracts for tens of millions per year in total comp, with generous exit packages. I'm just saying that's why companies won't replace them with AI, or even just cheaper proven leaders, any time soon, despite the fact that no CEO is worth the amount of money they make, in actual productivity.
AI isn't ready to replace programmers, engineers or IT admins yet. But let's be honest if some project manager or CTO somewhere hasn't already done it they're at least planning it.
Then eventually to save themselves or out of sheer ignorance they'll blame the chaos that results on the few remaining people who know what they're doing because they won't be able to admit or understand the fact that the bold decision they took to "embrace" AI and increase the company's bottom line which everyone else in their management bubble believes in has completely mangled whatever system their company builds or uses. More useful people will get fired and more actual work will get shifted to AI. But because that'll still make the number go up the management types will look even better and the spread of AI will carry on. Eventually all systems will become an unwieldy mess nobody can even hope to repair.
This is just IT, I'm pretty sure most other industries will eventually suffer the same fate. Global supply chains will collapse and we'll all get sent back to the dark ages.
TL,DR: The real problem with AI isn't that it'll become too powerful and choose to kill us, but that corporate morons will overestimate how powerful it already is and that will cause our eventual downfall.
AI isn't ready to replace programmers, engineers or IT admins yet.
On the other hand.. it's been about 2.5 years since chatgpt came out, and it's gone from you being lucky it could write a few python lines without errors to being able to one shot a mobile phone level complexity game, even with self hosted models.
Who knows where it'll be in a few years
Lmfao I love these threads. “I haven’t built anything myself with the thing I’m claiming makes you obsolete but trust me it makes you obsolete”
Pinky is on form!
I've always said as a software developer that our longterm job is to program ourselves out of a job. In fact, in the long term EVERYBODY is "cooked" as automation becomes more and more capable. The eventual outcome will be that nobody will have to work. AI in its present state isn't ready at all to replace programmers, but it can be a very helpful assistant.
Management can't blame AI when shit hits the fan, though. We'll be fine. Either that or everything just collapses back into dust, which doesn't sound so bad in the current times.
That's the beauty of AI tho - AI shit rolls uphill, until it hits the manager who imposed the decision to use it (or their manager, or even their manager).
but it can be a very helpful assistant.
can, but usually when stuff gets slightly more complex, being a fast typewriter is usually more efficient and results in better code.
I guess it really depends on the aspiration for code-quality, complexity (yes it's good at generating boilerplate). If I don't care about a one-time use script that is quickly written in a prompt I'll use it.
Working on a big codebase, I don't even get the idea to ask an AI, you just can't feed enough context to the AI that it's really able to generate meaningful code...
I actually don't write code professionally anymore, I'm going on what my friend says - according to him he uses chatGPT every day to write code and it's a big help. Once he told it to refactor some code and it used a really novel approach he wouldn't have thought of. He showed it to another dev who said the same thing. It was like, huh, that's a weird way to do it, but it worked. But in general you really can't just tell an AI "Create an accounting system" or whatever and expect coherent working code without thoroughly vetting it.
Definitely bait
We're as cooked as artists (when asked to do shit jobs for non paying customers)
I once asked chatGPT to write a simple RK2 algorithm in python. The function couldve been about 3 lines followed by a return statement. It gave me some convoluted code that was 3 functions and about 20 lines. AI still has some time to go before its can handle writing code on its own. Ive asked copilot/chatGPT several times to write code (just for fun) and it always does this
My mate is applying to Amazon as warehouse worker. He has an IT degree.
My coworker in the bookkeeping department has two degrees. Accountancy and IT. She can't find an IT job.
At the other side though, my brother, an experienced software developer, is earning quite a lot of money now.
Basically, the industry is not investing in new blood.
Basically, the industry is not investing in new blood.
Yeah I think it makes sense out of an economic motivation. Often the code-quality of a junior is worse than that of an AI, and a senior has to review either, so they could just directly prompt the junior task into the AI.
The experience and skill to quickly grasp code and intention (and having a good initial idea where it should be going architecturally) is what is asked, which is obviously something that seniors are good at.
It's kinda sad that our profession/art is slowly dying out because juniors are slowly replaced by AI.
Yeah, I've been seeing the same. Purely economically it doesn't make sense with junior developers any more. AI is faster, cheaper and usually writes better code too.
The problem is that you need junior developers working and getting experience, otherwise you won't get senior developers. I really wonder how development as a profession will be in 10 years
Not sure how you manage to draw conclusions by comparing two different fields.
As someone trying to get a job in IT, I'm just going to ignore this comment :)
My company was desperate to find a brand new dev straight out of the oven we could still mold to our sensibilities late last year when everything seemed doomed. Yes, it was one hire out of like 10 interviewed candidates, but point is, there are companies still hiring. Our CTO straight up judges people who use an LLM and don't know how the code actually works. Mr. "Just use an AI agent" would never get the job.
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