You can hardly get online these days without hearing some AI booster talk about how AI coding is going to replace human programmers. AI code is absolutely up to production quality! Also, you’re all…
To be honest, you sound like you’re only just starting to learn to code.
I definitely am. But I have no doubts that ai is going to take a lot of entry-level type jobs soon, and eventually higher end jobs.
We’ll always need good, smart coders. Just not as many as we have now.
but it’s not obvious to people who don’t have that skill and so we now spend a lot of time telling bosses “no, that’s not actually correct”.
I get it. But those clueless people are gonna be the people in charge of hiring, and they’ll decide to hire less, and expect current staff to do more. I’ve seen in hundreds of time in industries, and it’s already happening now in yours.
For context, I’m old. So I’ve seen your arguments in many different industries.
And to your point, they’ll have ai replacing good people, long before ai is good enough to. But you’re approaching the issue with logic. Corporate lacks a lot of logic.
I’m already seeing it in your industry. Plenty of reddit/Lemmy posts talking about how coders have been laid off, and having a much much more difficult time getting another job than at any point in their careers.
Again, I’m saying AI is a good solution. I’m saying management will think that. Just like they did when they offshored jobs to much less skilled, yet way more inexpensive workers.
To copy what someone else in this thread said:
The idea that AI will some day be good at coding isn’t the issue. The issue is that some people in management think it’s already well on the way to being a good substitute, and they’re trying to do more with fewer coders to everyone’s detriment.
If I say, “now we have robots that can build a car from scratch!” the automakers will be salivating. But if my robot actually cannot build a car, then I don’t think it’s going to cause mass layoffs.
Many of the big software companies are doing mass layoffs. It’s not because AI has taken over the jobs. They always hired extra people as a form of anti-competitiveness. Now they’re doing layoffs to drive salaries down. That sucks and tech workers would be smart to unionize (we won’t). But I don’t see any radical shift in the industry.
A big part of the changed software job market in the US is caused by the rise of interest rates, and in consequence a large part of high-risk venture capital money drying up. This was finsncing a lot of start-ups without any solid product or business model. And, this began very clearly before the AI hype.
The trope that AI is actually replacing jobs is a lie that AI companies want you to believe.
Companies are also using AI to mask layoffs. “Yeah we dont need as many employees because AI can do their jobs better. Please shareholders, buy more stock and ignore our numbers!”
If you walk around in my city and open your eyes, you will see that half of the bars and restaurants are closed because there is a shortage of even unskilled staff and restaurants didn’t pay enough to people. They now work in other sectors.
And yes, software developers are leaving jobs with unreasonable demands and shitty work conditions. Last not least because conserving mental health is more important. Go, for exanple, to the news.ycombinators.com forum and just search for the keyword “burnout”. That’s becoming a massive problem for companies because rising complexity is not matched by adequate organizational practices.
And AI is not going to help with that - it is already massively increasing technical debt.
I definitely am. But I have no doubts that ai is going to take a lot of entry-level type jobs soon, and eventually higher end jobs.
We’ll always need good, smart coders. Just not as many as we have now.
I get it. But those clueless people are gonna be the people in charge of hiring, and they’ll decide to hire less, and expect current staff to do more. I’ve seen in hundreds of time in industries, and it’s already happening now in yours.
For context, I’m old. So I’ve seen your arguments in many different industries.
And to your point, they’ll have ai replacing good people, long before ai is good enough to. But you’re approaching the issue with logic. Corporate lacks a lot of logic.
I’m already seeing it in your industry. Plenty of reddit/Lemmy posts talking about how coders have been laid off, and having a much much more difficult time getting another job than at any point in their careers.
Again, I’m saying AI is a good solution. I’m saying management will think that. Just like they did when they offshored jobs to much less skilled, yet way more inexpensive workers.
To copy what someone else in this thread said:
I don’t understand how you think this works.
If I say, “now we have robots that can build a car from scratch!” the automakers will be salivating. But if my robot actually cannot build a car, then I don’t think it’s going to cause mass layoffs.
Many of the big software companies are doing mass layoffs. It’s not because AI has taken over the jobs. They always hired extra people as a form of anti-competitiveness. Now they’re doing layoffs to drive salaries down. That sucks and tech workers would be smart to unionize (we won’t). But I don’t see any radical shift in the industry.
A big part of the changed software job market in the US is caused by the rise of interest rates, and in consequence a large part of high-risk venture capital money drying up. This was finsncing a lot of start-ups without any solid product or business model. And, this began very clearly before the AI hype.
The trope that AI is actually replacing jobs is a lie that AI companies want you to believe.
Companies are also using AI to mask layoffs. “Yeah we dont need as many employees because AI can do their jobs better. Please shareholders, buy more stock and ignore our numbers!”
If you walk around in my city and open your eyes, you will see that half of the bars and restaurants are closed because there is a shortage of even unskilled staff and restaurants didn’t pay enough to people. They now work in other sectors.
And yes, software developers are leaving jobs with unreasonable demands and shitty work conditions. Last not least because conserving mental health is more important. Go, for exanple, to the news.ycombinators.com forum and just search for the keyword “burnout”. That’s becoming a massive problem for companies because rising complexity is not matched by adequate organizational practices.
And AI is not going to help with that - it is already massively increasing technical debt.