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Yeah, the value of software as a whole seems like it is about to greatly decrease. You’d think tech companies and investors would be a lot more nervous about de

Yeah, the value of software as a whole seems like it is about to greatly decrease. You’d think tech companies and investors would be a lot more nervous about destroying the value of software, but I’m not sure if they’re thinking that far ahead. Hooray, in a few years you can type a prompt and get a complete app you can sell to customers! But the customer can also type a prompt and get a complete app that meets their expectations even better than yours. Your generated app is worthless. Your entire company is just a middle man between the customer and ChatGPT, and the customer can write a prompt just as well as you. Software as an entire industry is pretty much going to cease to exist if AI enthusiasts get their way. We already see this with music. Have you ever had someone give you a link to a song they generated with AI? Do you really want to spend 4 minutes listening to a thing they made in 15 seconds? If I wanted an AI song about coffee then I’d generate one myself, not listen to yours. The faster and easier it gets to generate apps, the more we’re going to end up with people just generating their own. You won’t be able to sell your generated apps to anyone.

TypingOutBugs 2y ago
> But the customer can also type a prompt and get a complete app that meets their expectations even better than yours. Your generated app is worthless. Your entire company is just a middle man between the customer and ChatGPT, and the customer can write a prompt just as well as you. What sort of apps do you work on where this is the case? I just can’t fathom how a 10mloc financial engine that follows global regulations, has latency requirements, and tons of complex business logic that’s propriety, is going to be built via natural language. Or how about flight computers for rockets? Or sequences for MRI machines? These might be obviously hard, but where’s the limit between viable and not viable?
- actsasbuffoon 2y ago
  AI absolutely can’t do the work that I do right now, but if AI keeps advancing then that gap is going to get smaller. And at some point, even if the gap is still pretty big, the never-ending quest to increase profits will drive companies to start laying developers off even if the AI isn’t quite ready. I work in a highly regulated industry. I hope that buys time. But I spend a lot of time worrying about how I’m going to take care of my kid if things keep moving at this rate.

TypingOutBugs 2y ago

> But the customer can also type a prompt and get a complete app that meets their expectations even better than yours. Your generated app is worthless. Your entire company is just a middle man between the customer and ChatGPT, and the customer can write a prompt just as well as you. What sort of apps do you work on where this is the case? I just can’t fathom how a 10mloc financial engine that follows global regulations, has latency requirements, and tons of complex business logic that’s propriety, is going to be built via natural language. Or how about flight computers for rockets? Or sequences for MRI machines? These might be obviously hard, but where’s the limit between viable and not viable?

actsasbuffoon 2y ago
AI absolutely can’t do the work that I do right now, but if AI keeps advancing then that gap is going to get smaller. And at some point, even if the gap is still pretty big, the never-ending quest to increase profits will drive companies to start laying developers off even if the AI isn’t quite ready. I work in a highly regulated industry. I hope that buys time. But I spend a lot of time worrying about how I’m going to take care of my kid if things keep moving at this rate.