this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
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What are devs displaced by AI going to do in the future? Is there an actual plan? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago by DuckWrangler9000@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Let's assume that in 10 years, AI has advanced absurdly, insanely fast, and is now capable of doing everything a Senior SWE can do. It can program in 15 different languages, 95% accuracy with almost no mistakes, can create entire applications in minutes, and no more engineers or SWEs are needed.... What will all the devs do? Do they just become homeless? Transition to medical field, nursing? Become tradespeople like plumbers, HVAC?

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[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They'll either move up the food chain to higher-touch work where AI can't compete, or they'll do other things.

Keep in mind that most devs aren't really all that good at their jobs, so it will probably be economically beneficial for them to do something else. I say this as a long-time hiring manager with many decades of experience in the field.

It can program in 15 different languages, 95% accuracy with almost no mistakes, can create entire applications in minutes

Only if you believe the hype. It can do that in best-case scenarios when the requirements are written as rigorously as code, or where it's replicating a common pattern.

Do they just become homeless?

During previous layoffs, a lot of them left the field, and some of the rest founded startups. It wasn't always the case that firms were founded by teenaged sociopaths with strong family connections to VC funding. There was a time when they were founded by people who knew how to do things.

[–] Sprocketfree@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Last time I used it the code it gave me wouldn't actually run. After 6 iterations and fixing the rest it kind of worked. In theory that should only get better but I'm not sold yet.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I would never have expected it to run, be shocked if it did. You use AI to get over humps, get new ideas and approaches. It's excellent for time saving in those cases.

AI isn't ready to replace coders, but it's quickly going to make a dent on the numbers needed.

[–] Sprocketfree@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

I see your thought process there. But I'm not sure modern IDEs led to less devs. Time will tell but I just few most of this as vapor ware atm. Let's also look at the fact that chatgpt is hemmoriging money even with high price tiers. It is possible this just burns itself out.