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If AI Is Already Writing Code, Will Programmers Lose Their Jobs? (2018)

7 points by respinal 7y ago

ratsmack 7y ago
Until AI has desire, imagination and a sense of purpose, I don't think programmers will be losing too many jobs right away.
- greenyoda 7y ago
  And until AI can talk to the people who are paying for the code and figure out what, exactly, they want the code to do, they won't be able to write useful or correct code. (Think of how many business people you've met who can give useful specs to a developer.)
  - ratsmack 7y ago
    Future news article: "AI talks to exec to determine software requirements, suffers nervous breakdown"
simonblack 7y ago
Every few years, we hear of some new magical program, language or process that will make programmers obsolete overnight. In my own experience, this has been happening for nearly 40 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_%28software%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_%28software%29 As the old saying goes: "Don't give up your day job." We'll be needing programmers for centuries yet.
perl4ever 7y ago
Did assemblers result in programmers losing their jobs? Did compilers? People continually write about a crisis in this or that without ever making a case for why there should be a big discontinuity rather than an evolution at a fairly uniform rate.
- erik_seaberg 7y ago
  > Did assemblers result in programmers losing their jobs? Did compilers? Of course they did. We used to have "systems analysts" drawing flowcharts, "programmers" converting those to machine code (or later FORTRAN) on punch cards, and "operators" collating card decks or mounting tapes. That's a ton of grunt work we no longer hire for. If those people found other roles, it's because the nascent computer industry was expanding faster than the most uncreative jobs disappeared. There was resistance to the first assembler programs because machine time was more precious than having grad students do it by hand.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    Every time someone does something new at work, they "lost their job" in a manner of speaking. But to equate that with the ordinary sense of losing a job seems like sophistry to me. As a programmer, you shouldn't be doing anything more than once if possible, which means every task should be new.
    - erik_seaberg 7y ago
      "Here's an algorithm, translate it to opcodes for this machine" used to be a full-time job for human beings. They weren't designing software the way we do, they were compiling what someone else had already designed. Our role is automating rote work, but we have to accept that we're ending the demand for certain jobs. Not every programmer became a systems analyst.
      - perl4ever 7y ago
        That is the same job as any programmer does today. I've done it, in the absence of an assembler, so I think I should know. I also know that programmers in the 50s who were thought of as like secretaries, adjuncts to the real thinkers/designers/engineers were basically the same as programmers today, not FAANG programmers, but mundane business programmers. You want an AI to program? Give it this and watch it go all HAL 9000: https://www.bountysource.com/issues/8705271-no-support-for-multi-page-unbreakableblocks https://www.bountysource.com/issues/8705271-no-support-for-m... ...you want to...break...unbreakable blocks?? Sure. You know, do what I mean, not what I say... Programming is a social activity, and programmers are not computers.
ossworkerrights 7y ago
Wondering how countries such as India will be affected by this.
rolph 7y ago
how about this? AI is writing code, so its not a far stretch, for AI to edit code, on the fly between hops, so whatever you send can be individually edited before the endpoint receives it.

7 points by respinal 7y ago

Until AI has desire, imagination and a sense of purpose, I don't think programmers will be losing too many jobs right away.

greenyoda 7y ago
And until AI can talk to the people who are paying for the code and figure out what, exactly, they want the code to do, they won't be able to write useful or correct code. (Think of how many business people you've met who can give useful specs to a developer.)
- ratsmack 7y ago
  Future news article: "AI talks to exec to determine software requirements, suffers nervous breakdown"

simonblack 7y ago

Every few years, we hear of some new magical program, language or process that will make programmers obsolete overnight. In my own experience, this has been happening for nearly 40 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_%28software%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_%28software%29 As the old saying goes: "Don't give up your day job." We'll be needing programmers for centuries yet.

perl4ever 7y ago

Did assemblers result in programmers losing their jobs? Did compilers? People continually write about a crisis in this or that without ever making a case for why there should be a big discontinuity rather than an evolution at a fairly uniform rate.

erik_seaberg 7y ago
> Did assemblers result in programmers losing their jobs? Did compilers? Of course they did. We used to have "systems analysts" drawing flowcharts, "programmers" converting those to machine code (or later FORTRAN) on punch cards, and "operators" collating card decks or mounting tapes. That's a ton of grunt work we no longer hire for. If those people found other roles, it's because the nascent computer industry was expanding faster than the most uncreative jobs disappeared. There was resistance to the first assembler programs because machine time was more precious than having grad students do it by hand.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  Every time someone does something new at work, they "lost their job" in a manner of speaking. But to equate that with the ordinary sense of losing a job seems like sophistry to me. As a programmer, you shouldn't be doing anything more than once if possible, which means every task should be new.
  - erik_seaberg 7y ago
    "Here's an algorithm, translate it to opcodes for this machine" used to be a full-time job for human beings. They weren't designing software the way we do, they were compiling what someone else had already designed. Our role is automating rote work, but we have to accept that we're ending the demand for certain jobs. Not every programmer became a systems analyst.
    - perl4ever 7y ago
      That is the same job as any programmer does today. I've done it, in the absence of an assembler, so I think I should know. I also know that programmers in the 50s who were thought of as like secretaries, adjuncts to the real thinkers/designers/engineers were basically the same as programmers today, not FAANG programmers, but mundane business programmers. You want an AI to program? Give it this and watch it go all HAL 9000: https://www.bountysource.com/issues/8705271-no-support-for-multi-page-unbreakableblocks https://www.bountysource.com/issues/8705271-no-support-for-m... ...you want to...break...unbreakable blocks?? Sure. You know, do what I mean, not what I say... Programming is a social activity, and programmers are not computers.

ossworkerrights 7y ago

Wondering how countries such as India will be affected by this.

rolph 7y ago

how about this? AI is writing code, so its not a far stretch, for AI to edit code, on the fly between hops, so whatever you send can be individually edited before the endpoint receives it.