Many Devs today share the sentiment that it doesn't matter anymore how well you write code or how well you can iterate a binary tree. This has become specially true with all the AI autocomplete tools made by AI developers.
It seems as if AI developers put all their strength on replacing us instead of solving real world problems. After all, how else could they market or sell their products to the greedy CEOs and investment bankers.
I spent a good several months doing research on the topic and figuring out how much impact the autocomplete tools have effectively made many roles redundant.
Do not buy the lie that those tools were made to help us be more efficient. It is all about paying less wages and hiring less people since machines and robots don't complain and can work faster than us.
At the same time, there is a clear narrative being pushed indirectly by AI Developers that AGI is coming soon and that we humans are no longer needed. All of this to boost the stock prices but without real substance or value.
While we cannot underestimate the impact of the autocomplete tools made by AI Developers, we need to understand what AI could and cannot do actually.
AI's Fatal Flaw Scientifically
What we call today AI, is nothing more than pattern recognition combined with math aimed at predicting or giving the likelihood of an input matching a certain category which depends on LLM (Large Language Model).
Understanding that AI is about statistical models and math, helps you understand that AI will never be able to deal with unique or new problems (which are almost infinite).
No matter how much money AI Developers will throw to market their Sci-fi themed autocomplete, it is not going to change science.
If your Self Driving car saw a human dressed up on Halloween, is it going to understand that this is a human if it wasn't explicitly trained for this specific scenario?
You begin to understand that AI is only good at dealing with problems involving pattern recognition given specific data or highly repetitive tasks such chat bots for common customer service problems. Even with this, the implementing organization still needs to train AI to handle their specific problem domains which also costs money.
Still, Autocomplete Tools Wrecked Software Development
Several factors have impacted Devs' lives very negatively as a result of the tools and the way how capitalism works.
The IT labor market was based on a pre-AI market where you needed lots of coders to write the software pieces and put them together or integrate them with other tools. This required a huge number of Developers who were good at writing sound clean code.
The post-AI market and supply/demand macroeconomics now made it unnecessary to hire as many Developers as in the past.
It is very logical that corporations will seek efficiency. If you hire few Developers who know how to use AI tools to generate all the boilerplate code, why do you need to hire coders if just 1 or 2 Devs will suffice?
The real problem arised from corporations silently adopting AI autocomplete tools without informing in advance the public of such changes. Otherwise, the number of Computer Science graduates would have been way less as people will begin to seek other fields that are less saturated.
The current dynamics hurt both Senior and Junior Devs permanently and the next decade will be full of pain for a lot of us as we try to adapt to the new reality and re-skilling to seek roles that have less impact by AI.
Why Not Focus On System Design and Architecture?
If you are thinking this way (which companies now pressuring us to on job interviews), you are not wrong. However, you are still missing the point.
How many software architects do you actually need? Yes, you don't need 200 Devs who are good at SD.
Even Software Architects Won't Survive The Purge
As existing wanted to be coders are now adapting suddenly to the increased focus on architecture and design, the architect role is under real threat as all the SWE are now deep learning SD and architecture.
This means, that those who studied architecture and got paid a decent wage despite the demand that was already low, they are now going to be buried even deeper under the rubble.
Mass Layoffs Aftermath
Another significant factor that will ruin SWE career, is that the market demand on SWE was highly influenced by big tech players who were already highly picky and selective in their recruitment processes.
As 10s of thousands of highly qualified SWEs are laid off and struggling to find jobs, the market has become even more competitive than before.
So even for companies that are still hiring Devs, it is normal to expect them now to post all roles as "Senior ..." since they could afford now to be more picky and selective.
So when you are applying as a Frontend Dev to your local coffee shop, you are competing with an ex-big tech Devs who are highly qualified, got exposed to big technologies (even if they are less likely going to use it in startups).
SWE Job Interviews Torture Candidates Without Real Purpose
Your local coffee shop startup will have Devs who are still stuck on the big tech hiring practices; they will ask you questions even if you have tons of experience and tons of certifications.
The practice of whiteboard testing should truly be abolished for Senior Devs specially if you have certifications for the skills that they care about. Unfortunately, the industry is still stuck on over scrutinizing candidates and dwelling on their cultural fit just to write a bunch of if statements and for loops.
Today, expect this to get even worse than before because whoever is now in hiring position, can afford to be selective, picky, test and re-test and project their ego with full force regardless of your level of skill.
In the past, it was possible for Senior Devs to push back against assessments that come out as disrespectful specially for highly experienced and qualified candidates. Now it's impossible because we have a broken market where Devs are still stuck on big tech hiring practices for local coffee shop startup and a huge influx of candidates available (laid off by big tech).
“AI Hype” Is Not a Hype
A lot of people are saying that it's a hype including Devs. This is nothing more than wishful thinking. It is naive to ignore what the autocomplete AI tools have achieved so far.
AI IS NOT A HYPE.
If you want to survive, you need to look for skills that cannot be automated.
A balanced approach is to instead focus on how to retrain yourself to focus on roles that are in high demand and cannot be automated.
Have AI Developers exaggerated? Absolutely, this had been confirmed by recent research. However, this doesn't mean we can ignore what these autocomplete tools have been able to achieve.
The CEOs and investment bankers don't care about our opinions. They care about the bottom line and how much less wages to be spent on human labor.
How Future Looks Like and Is There Hope?
The future, is something you define for yourself. If you are still looking for the cozy and comfortable job, Software Development is no longer that job. You are now no different from account executives in a company just doing paperwork and getting paid to survive.
You are now easy to replace with cheap and more skilled labor.
Do not get distracted by the "New" requirements of SWE. It's now a race to the bottom as 100s of thousands of Devs are going down that rabbit hole.
Creativity and problem solving are vague terms used loosely by companies' PR to make themselves look nice despite laying off 1000s of people who had families to feed without even a chance to re-skill or change roles.
Focus on roles in the industry where automation doesn't work or have everyday unique problems that no AI can learn or recognize.
Which ones? I'm not going to tell you any specific role because that's the problem today with media. You need to do your research and figure it out on your own.
Top comments (1)
Wow I read the entire article and learnt nothing. Such an accomplishment (not sarcastic).