[cejast]

I don't think it is an illusion. It can remove a lot of barriers to entry for some people, and this is probably what you're seeing in the anecdata.

For example, my brother. He is what I'd refer to as 'tech-aligned' - he can and has written code before, but does not do it for a living and only ever wrote basic Python scripts every now and then to help with his actual work.

LLM's have enabled him to build out web apps in perhaps 1/5 of the time it would have taken him if he tried to learn and build them out from scratch. I don't think he would have even attempted it without an LLM.

Now it doesn't 'code everything' - he still has to massage the output to get what he wants, and there is still a learning curve to climb. But the spring-board that LLM's can give people, particularly those who don't have much experience in software development, should not be underestimated.

[andix]

There is a big gap between being able to create a somehow working application and shipping a product to a customer.

Those claims are about being able to create a profitable product with 10x efficiency.