The recurring dream of replacing developers
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The recurring dream of replacing developers
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Re: The recurring dream of replacing developers
#2The dumb part of this is: so who prompts the AI?
Well probably we'd want a person who really gets the AI, as they'll have a talent for prompting it well.
Meaning: knows how to talk to computers better than other people.
So a programmer then...
I think it's not that people are stupid. I think there's actually a glee behind the claims AI will put devs out of work - like they feel good about the idea of hurting them, rather than being driven by dispassionate logic.
Maybe it's the ancient jocks vs nerds thing.
Re: The recurring dream of replacing developers
#3The dumb part of this is: so who prompts the AI? Well probably we'd want a person who really gets the AI, as they'll have a talent for prompting it well. Meaning: knows how to talk to computers better than other people. So a programmer then... I think it's not that people are stupid. I think there's actually a glee behind the claims AI will put devs out of work - like they feel good about the idea of hurting them, ra…
Devs are where projects meet the constraints of reality and people always want to kill the messenger.
Re: The recurring dream of replacing developers
#4The dumb part of this is: so who prompts the AI? Well probably we'd want a person who really gets the AI, as they'll have a talent for prompting it well. Meaning: knows how to talk to computers better than other people. So a programmer then... I think it's not that people are stupid. I think there's actually a glee behind the claims AI will put devs out of work - like they feel good about the idea of hurting them, ra…
Even that is the wrong question. The whole promise of the stock market, of AI is that you can "run companies" by just owning shares and knowing nothing at all. I think that is what "leaders" hope to achieve. It's a slightly more dressed get-rich-quick scheme.
Invest $1000 into AI, have a $1000000 company in a month. That's the dream they're selling, at least until they have enough investment.
It of course becomes "oh, sorry, we happen to have taken the only huge business for ourselves. Is your kidney now for sale?"
Re: The recurring dream of replacing developers
#5The link doesn't works for me, just get thrown on the main page after a second.
Re: The recurring dream of replacing developers
#6The dumb part of this is: so who prompts the AI? Well probably we'd want a person who really gets the AI, as they'll have a talent for prompting it well. Meaning: knows how to talk to computers better than other people. So a programmer then... I think it's not that people are stupid. I think there's actually a glee behind the claims AI will put devs out of work - like they feel good about the idea of hurting them, ra…
> who prompts the AI
LLMs are a box where the input has to be generated by someone/something, but also the output has to be verified somehow (because, like humans, it isn't always correct). So you either need a human at "both ends", or some very clever AI filling those roles.
But I think the human doing those things probably needs slightly different skills and experience than the average legacy developer.
Re: The recurring dream of replacing developers
#7> Understanding this doesn’t mean rejecting new tools. It means using them with clear expectations about what they can provide and what will always require human judgment.
Speaking of tools, that style of writing rings a bell.. Ben Affleck made a similar point about the evolving use of computers and AI in filmmaking, wielded with creativity by humans with lived experiences, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2OsvVJC0s. Faster visual effects production enables more creative options.
Re: The recurring dream of replacing developers
#8The dumb part of this is: so who prompts the AI? Well probably we'd want a person who really gets the AI, as they'll have a talent for prompting it well. Meaning: knows how to talk to computers better than other people. So a programmer then... I think it's not that people are stupid. I think there's actually a glee behind the claims AI will put devs out of work - like they feel good about the idea of hurting them, ra…
Some people just see it as a cost, one "tech" startup I worked at I got this lengthy pitch from a sales exec that they shouldn't have a software team at all, that we'd never be able to build anything useful without spending millions and that money would be better-spent on the sales team, although they'd have nothing to sell lmfao. And the real laugh was the dev team was heavily subsidized by R&D grants anyway.
Re: The recurring dream of replacing developers
#9The dumb part of this is: so who prompts the AI? Well probably we'd want a person who really gets the AI, as they'll have a talent for prompting it well. Meaning: knows how to talk to computers better than other people. So a programmer then... I think it's not that people are stupid. I think there's actually a glee behind the claims AI will put devs out of work - like they feel good about the idea of hurting them, ra…
They don't need to put all developers out of work to have a financial impact on the career.
Re: The recurring dream of replacing developers
#10The dumb part of this is: so who prompts the AI? Well probably we'd want a person who really gets the AI, as they'll have a talent for prompting it well. Meaning: knows how to talk to computers better than other people. So a programmer then... I think it's not that people are stupid. I think there's actually a glee behind the claims AI will put devs out of work - like they feel good about the idea of hurting them, ra…
> who prompts the AI LLMs are a box where the input has to be generated by someone/something, but also the output has to be verified somehow (because, like humans, it isn't always correct). So you either need a human at "both ends", or some very clever AI filling those roles. But I think the human doing those things probably needs slightly different skills and experience than the average legacy developer.
Rules engines were designed for just such a thing. Validating input/output. You don’t need a human to prompt AI, you need a pipeline.
While a single LLM won’t replace you. A well designed system of flows for software engineering using LLMs will.