[chii]

> The question that matters is: will businesses crumble due to overproduction of same (or lower) quality code sooner or later.

but why doesn't that happen today? Cheap code can be had by hiring in cheap locations (outsourced for example).

The reality is that customers are the ultimate arbiters, and if it satisfies them, the business will not collapse. And i have not seen a single customer demonstrate that they care about the quality of the code base behind the product they enjoy paying for.

[thesz]

> And i have not seen a single customer demonstrate that they care about the quality of the code base behind the product they enjoy paying for.

The code quality translates to speed of introduction of changes, fixes of defects and amount of user-facing defects.

While customers may not express any care about code quality directly they can and will express (dis)satisfaction with performance and defects of the product.

[carschno]

It happens today. However, companies fail for multiple problems that come together. Bad software quality (from whatever source) is typically not a very visible one among them because when business people take over, they only see (at most) that software development/maintenance cost more money that it could yield.

[OvbiousError]

It is happening. There is a lot of bad software out there. Terrible to use, but still functional enough that it keeps selling. The question is how much crap you can pile on top of that already bad code before it falls apart.

[sdesol]

> Cheap code can be had by hiring in cheap locations (outsourced for example).

If you outsource and like what you get, you would assume the place you outsourced to can help provide continued support. What assurance do you have with LLMs? A working solution doesn't mean it can be easily maintained and/or evolved.

> And i have not seen a single customer demonstrate that they care about the quality of the code base behind the product they enjoy paying for.

That is true, but they will complain if bugs cannot be fixed and features are added. It is true that customers don't care, and they shouldn't, until it does matter, of course.

The challenge with software development isn't necessarily with the first iteration, but rather it is with continued support. Where I think LLMs can really shine is in providing domain experts (those who understand the problem) with a better way to demonstrate their needs.