[omnicognate]

If that's the case (and I'm not convinced it is), shouldn't retaining that skill be the priority for anyone who has already acquired it? I've yet to see any evidence AI can turn someone who can't code into a substitute for someone who can. If the supply of that skill is going to dry up, surely it will only become more valuable. If using AI erodes it, the logical thing would be not to use AI.

[baq]

That's the correct diagnosis IMHO, but getting good as software engineering is ~3 years of serious studying and ~5-10 years of serious work and that's after you've learned to code, which is easier to some and more difficult to others.

Compare ROI of that to being able to get kinda the software you need in a few hours of prompting; it's a new paradigm, progress is (still) exponential and we don't know where exactly things will settle.

Experts will get scarce and very sought after, but once they start to retire in 10-20-30 years... either dark ages or AI overlords await us.

[aleph_minus_one]

> If that's the case [...], shouldn't retaining that skill be the priority for anyone who has already acquired it?

Indeed I believe that, but in my experience these skills get more and more useless in the job market. In other words: retaining such (e.g. low-level coding) skills is an intensively practises hobby of such people that is (currently) of "no use" in the job market.