Rise of the machines, are software engineers next?
Watching the rise of different tools that “can function as a fully autonomous software engineer”(Devin Introduction) I’ve started thinking about the future of my job as a software engineer and obviously one big question came into my mind:
Will my job be replaced by LLMs or is this simply a new tool to learn and improve my daily workflow?
I’m honestly worried about this and I started researching a bit around the argument and what I’ve found is not so encouraging at all.
Take a look at what Jensen Huang Nvidia CEO said. Now, should we stop teaching Computer Science because AI will generate all the code we want by using natural language? Honestly, should we take the word of someone with a vested financial interest? I don’t think so, however his words are outlining a common trend that’s well explained in this post by Baldur Bjarnason which is a long one to summarize but let me put it in plain and simple words:
As software engineers we are well paid and this, in the modern tech - and not only - corporate world is something that needs to be fixed with every means, and honestly this is what management believes: Read this Reddit thread quoted in Bjarnason’s post, among other things.
The most positive approach I found so far is this by Jon Udell he thinks that LLms will help us understanding existing code rather than writing it, because of their “ability” to recognise patterns and summarise the findings. In his eyes this should improve the quality of the documentation and the overall quality of the code itself, that will for sure still be written by humans.
Now what should I do? Well, before moving to the Uk I was freelancing and I never put my eggs in one basket so I will try to diversify my knowledge again. By diversifying my skills with languages like Rust and Crystal, honing my writing abilities, and pursuing scrum master training - my company required it. What I do hope though is that human expertise in problem-solving and creative thinking will continue to be valuable in this field, despite the push to automate everything.
Things I like - in random order
I honestly love my second hand Canon EOS 100D because I’m finally able to experiment with photography in a proper way, learning what different settings are doing and boosting my creativity. Digital photography for sure helped photographers and not replaced them and this is what tech innovation means to me.
Here are two pictures that I took with it:
Today’s Links
The uncanny music of Slack Huddles on Wired
Texas is replacing human graders with AI The Verge
Own Your Web Issue 13