[notarobot123]

When a higher level of abstraction allows programmers to focus on the detail relevant to them they stop needing to know the low level stuff. Some programmers tend not to be a fan of these kinds of changes as we well know.

But do LLMs provide a higher level of abstraction? Is this really one of those transition points in computing history?

If they do, it's a different kind to compilers, third-party APIs or any other form of higher level abstraction we've seen so far. It allows programmers to focus on a different level of detail to some extent but they still need to be able to assemble the "right enough" pieces into a meaningful whole.

Personally, I don't see this as a higher level of abstraction. I can't offload the cognitive load of understanding, just the work of constructing and typing out the solution. I can't fully trust the output and I can't really assemble the input without some knowledge of what I'm putting together.

LLMs might speed up development and lower the bar for developing complex applications but I don't think they raise the problem-solving task to one focused solely on the problem domain. That would be the point where you no longer need to know about the lower layers.