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I'm sure there is a formal proof someone can flesh out. - Half assed developer can construct a functional program with AI prompts. - Deployed at scale for pro

I'm sure there is a formal proof someone can flesh out. - Half assed developer can construct a functional program with AI prompts. - Deployed at scale for profit - Many considerations were not considered due to lack of expertise (security, for example) - Bad things happen for users. I have at least two or three ideas that I've canned for now because it's just not safe for users (AI apps of that type require a lot of safety considerations). For example, you cannot create a collaborative AI app without considering how users can pollute the database with unsafe content (moderation). I'm concerned a lot of people in this world are not being as cautious.

yodsanklai 2y ago
Why half-assed developer? It could be high-level developer that take advantage of AI to be more productive. This will reduce team sizes.
- Draiken 2y ago
  Because a high level developer will still have to fix all the shit the AI gets wrong, and therefore won't be "2x more productive" like I read in many places. If they're that much better with AI, they were likely coding greenfield CRUD boilerplate that nobody uses anyways. When the AI generated crap is actually used, it becomes evident how bad it is. But yes, this will reduce team sizes regardless of it being good or not, because the people making those decisions are not qualified to make them and will always prefer the short-term at the cost of the long-term. The only part of this article I don't see happening is programmers being way more expensive. Capitalism has a way of forcing everyone to accept work for way less than they're worth and that won't change.
  - yodsanklai 2y ago
    I'd say this is a lot of wishful thinking. Personally, I know that I'm more productive with AI. In my personal projects, I can tackle bigger projects than what would have been possible otherwise. Will that reduce the demand for programmers? I hope not, but it's plausible at least.
    - Draiken 2y ago
      What is wishful about my comment? I've used and still use AI, but it would be wishful thinking to say I'm significantly more productive. As you just said: in your personal projects - that 99.9% of the time will never be seen/used by anyone but you - AI helps. It's a great tool to hack and play around when there are little/no stakes involved, not much else. I believe it will reduce demand for programmers at least for a while, since companies touting they're replacing people with AI will learn its shortcomings once the real world hits them. Or maybe they won't since the shitty software they were building in the first place was so trivial that AI can actually do it.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- bloomingkales 2y ago
  I don't think we have enough data to see if it will reduce team size in the long run (can't believe I just said such an obvious thing). You may get a revolving door, similar to what we've had in tech in the last decade. Developers come into a startup and cook up a greenfield project. Then they leave, and the company waits until the next feature/revamp to bring the next crop of developers in. There will be some attempt at making AI handle the maintenance of the code, but I suspect it will be a quagmire. Won't stop companies from trying though. Basically, you will have a dynamic team size, not necessarily a smaller team size. The "half-assed" part is most likely a by-product of my self-loathing. I suspect the better word would have been "human".
- NoGravitas 2y ago
  If that's the way this goes (that for a large program you only need a senior developer and an AI, not a senior developer and some juniors), then it kills the pipeline for producing the senior developers who will still be needed.
  - greentxt 2y ago
    I hear highly experienced COBOL devs make bank. Supply and demand. Great for them!
surfingdino 2y ago
Deployed how? People who ask AI to "Write me a clone of Twitter" are incapable of deploying code.

yodsanklai 2y ago

Why half-assed developer? It could be high-level developer that take advantage of AI to be more productive. This will reduce team sizes.

Draiken 2y ago
Because a high level developer will still have to fix all the shit the AI gets wrong, and therefore won't be "2x more productive" like I read in many places. If they're that much better with AI, they were likely coding greenfield CRUD boilerplate that nobody uses anyways. When the AI generated crap is actually used, it becomes evident how bad it is. But yes, this will reduce team sizes regardless of it being good or not, because the people making those decisions are not qualified to make them and will always prefer the short-term at the cost of the long-term. The only part of this article I don't see happening is programmers being way more expensive. Capitalism has a way of forcing everyone to accept work for way less than they're worth and that won't change.
- yodsanklai 2y ago
  I'd say this is a lot of wishful thinking. Personally, I know that I'm more productive with AI. In my personal projects, I can tackle bigger projects than what would have been possible otherwise. Will that reduce the demand for programmers? I hope not, but it's plausible at least.
  - Draiken 2y ago
    What is wishful about my comment? I've used and still use AI, but it would be wishful thinking to say I'm significantly more productive. As you just said: in your personal projects - that 99.9% of the time will never be seen/used by anyone but you - AI helps. It's a great tool to hack and play around when there are little/no stakes involved, not much else. I believe it will reduce demand for programmers at least for a while, since companies touting they're replacing people with AI will learn its shortcomings once the real world hits them. Or maybe they won't since the shitty software they were building in the first place was so trivial that AI can actually do it.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bloomingkales 2y ago
I don't think we have enough data to see if it will reduce team size in the long run (can't believe I just said such an obvious thing). You may get a revolving door, similar to what we've had in tech in the last decade. Developers come into a startup and cook up a greenfield project. Then they leave, and the company waits until the next feature/revamp to bring the next crop of developers in. There will be some attempt at making AI handle the maintenance of the code, but I suspect it will be a quagmire. Won't stop companies from trying though. Basically, you will have a dynamic team size, not necessarily a smaller team size. The "half-assed" part is most likely a by-product of my self-loathing. I suspect the better word would have been "human".
NoGravitas 2y ago
If that's the way this goes (that for a large program you only need a senior developer and an AI, not a senior developer and some juniors), then it kills the pipeline for producing the senior developers who will still be needed.
- greentxt 2y ago
  I hear highly experienced COBOL devs make bank. Supply and demand. Great for them!

surfingdino 2y ago

Deployed how? People who ask AI to "Write me a clone of Twitter" are incapable of deploying code.