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LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

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Re: LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

#911

Post by ofjcihen »

rfgplk wrote: post #703
ofjcihen wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is akin to “don’t make mistakes” “Verify all facts and compliance requirements” leaves enormous holes even if you assume the LLM has a concept of facts and requirements (it does not). What facts? What requirements? For what industry? For what subset of that industry? For what country or countries that you will be doing business in? Are these current “facts” and “requirements” or is the LLM referencing a dusty ar…

> “Verify all facts and compliance requirements” No. This is a disasterous instruction. Not only is it vague, but it's also meaningless. When giving instructions to an LLM your prompt must be concise and exact. Tell it _exactly_ which requirements need to be followed, ideally have it write or (preferably) pass audited tests to enforce these requirements. You also need to provide it with a hard source of truth it can…

I think you might have meant to reply to the parent comment.

Re: LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

#912

Post by mullenba »

i5heu wrote: post #598
mullenba wrote: post #152

I've consulted with some big companies on AI strategy. I tell them there are two approaches to AI. 1) Train AI to replace human work. This gives you 50% quality for 10% cost. 2) Train AI to assist human workers. This gives you 200% quality for 110% cost. Most companies will go with option 1, and it's a race to the bottom. Eventually, someone will go with option 2 and gather up all of the pieces and take over the mark…

This is not at all how all of this works. If you train an AI in one thing it will become better in the other.

That's not true at all. They're entirely different problems. I worked with a global manufacturing company where we were able to cut plant stoppages for custom products by 2/3. When we used AI to handle the repetitive issues in service of human experts, it freed up the humans to see longstanding issues with data and plant processes that nobody had noticed before. Simply replacing the humans wouldn't have given nearly the same benefits.

Re: LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

#913

Post by mullenba »

altmanaltman wrote: post #789
mullenba wrote: post #152

I've consulted with some big companies on AI strategy. I tell them there are two approaches to AI. 1) Train AI to replace human work. This gives you 50% quality for 10% cost. 2) Train AI to assist human workers. This gives you 200% quality for 110% cost. Most companies will go with option 1, and it's a race to the bottom. Eventually, someone will go with option 2 and gather up all of the pieces and take over the mark…

Do you have any basis for these numbers or claims or just took it out or your backside and presented it as facts? What companies do you consult and on what

Look at Stitch Fix. Initially, they used AI to sort through their offerings and present options to human stylists. The humans were free to make changes however they felt was necessary. Then they brought in a new CEO from Amazon and fired most of the stylists to use straight AI. Satisfaction went down, revenues went down, and the company as a whole suffered greatly.

Re: LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

#914

Post by pjmlp »

rfgplk wrote: post #711
techblueberry wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your theory of when AI gets to 100%. PMs and business analysts build all the software? Or just like a 700 or so 1-founder companies in the world and everyone else is without work? The matrix?

> Or just like a 700 or so 1-founder companies in the world and everyone else is without work? This. But instead of 700 it's more likely that everyone will be a founder (more or less). It's already scary how easy it is to launch an MVP or produce prototypes with the latest models.

To whom will all those founders sell their AI generated products?

Re: LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

#915

Post by pjmlp »

rsalus wrote: post #626
george_max wrote: post #617

I see many comments saying, "AI can't do X with 80-100% accuracy; therefore our professions are in good hands." While I don't want to sound overly pessimistic, the models are improving at a rapid rate. If asked ~3 years ago where the state of the models are today, it would sound like sci-fi if answered, "the models are creating full MVP apps in ~30 minutes with one prompt". The hurdles the models are facing now, like…

I don't know, even if AI allows two engineers to do the work of six, companies will likely just use that efficiency to expand their scope. I think we'll see short-term layoffs and a more stratified engineering field during the transition, but the fundamental need for deep technical expertise isn't going away.

No, my life experience tells me those companies will fire the ones they no longer need instead.

Re: LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

#916

Post by ai_brain_rot »

HDBaseT wrote: post #758
Yokohiii wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learning a company and it's product is so natural to us that we hardly talk about it. It's a key skill for reliable workers. It's probably impossible for LLMs to learn and apply that wisdom reliably .

Why? Humans learn this information from documentation and being exposed to all the different systems. We know LLMs can ingest documentation like a sponge and access all different internal systems, resources and products via MCP Servers?

I think humans learn this from much more than documentation.

We learn it from conversations with our managers and peers. We learn it from reading between the lines of those conversations. We learn it by being in meetings and seeing who is reliable and who isn’t. Etc.

LLMs do great learning from documentation, but so much of what it takes for an employee to be successful isn’t and can’t be documented

Re: LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

#917

Post by [deleted] »

dgan wrote: post #64
dominotw wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

funny i was able to do all my taxes this year with ai help and not needing accountant.

Lol thats brave on your part, given that a mistake can cost thousands and you have no accountability (punch!) from an LLM

[deleted]

Re: LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

#918

Post by dominotw »

goosejuice wrote: post #215
dgan wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol thats brave on your part, given that a mistake can cost thousands and you have no accountability (punch!) from an LLM

In the US, all you need to work in tax prep is a high school diploma and most individuals are not worth the cost of an audit. I wouldn't say it's particularly brave, in fact LLMs are probably better at identifying mistakes than most tax payers. The % of Americans using a CPA to file taxes is fairly small.

you know i had a tax accountant that said i dont have to cap gains on iso exercise . i checked it with ai that gave me all the detailed info that i took back to accountant who then agreed that they made a mistake. Even if you dont feel comfortable using ai for taxes. you can atleast understand your situation better. And go to accountant for final 10percent. It is not really that hard.

Re: LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

#919

Post by mkovach »

t34t34r43 wrote: post #113
iandanforth wrote: post #18

Wut? I pilot LLMs all day but there's no way in hell I'd agree to be at the helm of a finance product. That first pillar is still there. Maybe the author isn't aware of the impact they have, but I know, with the evidence of reverted PRs, that when I step outside my area of deep knowledge I can no longer call BS on the agents. Our most capable agent, with access to the same kind of distributed systems the author talks…

Posting this under a burner so I don't dox myself: I work in FinTech on a regulated product. We have access to Mythos. Mythos identified part of our codebase that it confidently asserted was not complaint with a particular regulation and we were at grave risk by allowing it to operate the way it was. Except this was not the case, it had of course hallucinated what the regulation actually required (I know this because…

[dead]

Re: LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do

#920

Post by robeym »

That woodworking idea is great. It's just a hobby for me as well but after long days of desk work where moving fast is rewarded, it's great to work slowly on a wood project with my hands. I tried listing a couple things on Facebook marketplace but I had never used it before so they just removed my posts.
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