[patientplatypus]

I understand that someone has to be paid to generate AI, but one of the promises of programming of the last couple of years was that if you could afford a laptop and were smart enough you could contribute to software development by contributing to github and so forth. In practice I don't know how much of that translates into practice (see AWS/cloud/hosting and so forth), but I don't like this future where the only people who are able to program the machines are able to pay for an IDE that has a monthly or per usage cost structure.

The only people who get rich during a gold rush are the people that are selling the shovels. I think that people are tired of rewarding shovel sellers.

[jcq3]

Don't get your point. It's up to you to spend money to boost your productivity, nobody will force developers to use AI powered tools.

[blagie]

Let me explain the point:

* There are hundreds of millions of people living for under $2/day. Coding was a pathway out of poverty.

* There are billions of people with family incomes under $30/day. For those families, kids learning to code was a pathway to wealth.

If tools to be productive cost money, it will go the same way as other domains of engineering, where you can't be productive without a significant investment.

EDA tools to design electronics run $5k-$100k, and making an IC might have NREs of $100k. That places it squarely out-of-line as a career option for many.

[6gvONxR4sf7o]

It’s the shovels vs spoons parable all over again.

[blagie]

It's a different parable. Everyone can afford a shovel.

At one point in time, computers were limited to very wealthy folks, like Bill Gates. He learned to program by going to an exclusive private high school which had a computer, and later, in Harvard. He had a unique competitive advantage which allowed him to start Microsoft.

A better parable is GNU/Linux/BSD/etc. versus Unix/VAX/etc. Unix cost thousands of dollars. The free alternatives were free. This allowed a whole generation of kids to learn, who didn't have Gates' resources.

I wasn't in a private high school, and without Debian, I wouldn't have the life I have.

[philipphutterer]

Perhaps when the standard of software development shifts towards using AI for everything?

[vincent-manis]

Don't forget the, er, “recreation workers”.