[motorest]

> This is the fundamental truth that those pushing AI as a replacement for programmers miss (intentionally or not).

I think this blend of comment shows a good dose of ignorance discussing the role of AI as a replacement for programmers.

It's not like PMs are suddenly seeing engineers vanish from software projects. It's that AI makes developers so much more productive that you only need a subset of them to meet your work requirements.

To give you an example, AI tools can indeed help you write whole modules. Yes, code can be buggy. Yet, the "typing" part is not what developers benefit from AI. Developers can iterate way faster on designs and implementations by prompting LLMs to generate new components based on new rewuirements, which saves you the job of refactoring any code. LLMs can instantly review changes and suggest ways to improve it, which would require either reading up on the topic or asking a fellow engineer on payroll to spend their time doing the same job. LLMs can explain entire codebases to you without asking a single question to veteran engineers in the team. LLMs can even write all your unit tests and rewrite them again and again as you see fit. LLMs can even recommend best practices, explain tradeoffs of approaches, and suggest suitable names for methods/variables based on specific criterias.

This means AI can do a multitude of jobs that previously you needed a whole team to do, and for that you no longer need whole teams to do a job.

[oneeyedpigeon]

> LLMs can instantly review changes and suggest ways to improve it, which would require either reading up on the topic or asking a fellow engineer on payroll to spend their time doing the same job.

If we train ourselves out of being able to do these tasks, won't we find it harder to recognise when the AI makes mistakes?

[motorest]

> If we train ourselves out of being able to do these tasks, won't we find it harder to recognise when the AI makes mistakes?

We are not skipping these tasks. We are using tools to help us avoid doing drudge work that can be automated away.

Code linters eliminate the need to prettify code. Do developers find it harder to recognize indentation inconsistencies? Syntax highlighters simplify picking up code constructs. Do developers find it harder to read code? Template engines simplify generating new source files with programming constructs. Do developers find it harder to read code? Heck, auto complete helps developers write whole code blocks faster. Do developers find it harder to write a function?

[oneeyedpigeon]

I think those first two are not like the third. I think it's highly likely that developers who rely on AI to write code for them find it harder to write a function themselves, yes.

[exe34]

> It's that AI makes developers so much more productive that you only need a subset of them to meet your work requirements.

my experience so far is that it takes away the upfront thinking and leads to a mess of code that I then have to sit down with them and try to work through.

[bregma]

So, your argument is that AI does not replace programmers, it just... replaces programmers?

[motorest]

> So, your argument is that AI does not replace programmers, it just... replaces programmers?

I pointed out the fact that AI does not replace programmers. You still need people between keyboards and chairs delivering code and maintaining systems.

What AI does is make developers far more efficient at their job.

If you have employees that do their work in less time, they do not get more free time. They get more work. The moment their workforce is more productive, employees start to need fewer employees to deliver the same volume of work.

[liontwist]

Was this comment written by a bot? The concluding paragraph style and general length suggest to me it was.

[motorest]

It wasn't, and if it did I would wager it would write it more elegantly and coherently than me. That goes to show how much I use Claude/Copilot/ChatGPT at my job.

[teddyh]

Maybe you should read less AI-authored texts; you’re evidently starting to copy its style.

[bdhcuidbebe]

So what Ai models are usable for producing a navigatable structure?

I wasnt aware of any that could