
If AI Is Already Writing Code, Will Programmers Lose Their Jobs? (2018) - respinal
https://medium.com/@kateabrosimova/if-ai-is-already-writing-code-will-programmers-lose-their-jobs-f942c15caebb
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simonblack
Every few years, we hear of some new magical program, language or process that
will make programmers obsolete overnight. In my own experience, this has been
happening for nearly 40 years.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_%28software%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_%28software%29)

As the old saying goes: "Don't give up your day job." We'll be needing
programmers for centuries yet.

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perl4ever
Did assemblers result in programmers losing their jobs? Did compilers?

People continually write about a crisis in this or that without ever making a
case for why there should be a big discontinuity rather than an evolution at a
fairly uniform rate.

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erik_seaberg
> Did assemblers result in programmers losing their jobs? Did compilers?

Of course they did. We used to have "systems analysts" drawing flowcharts,
"programmers" converting those to machine code (or later FORTRAN) on punch
cards, and "operators" collating card decks or mounting tapes. That's a ton of
grunt work we no longer hire for. If those people found other roles, it's
because the nascent computer industry was expanding faster than the most
uncreative jobs disappeared.

There was resistance to the first assembler programs because machine time was
more precious than having grad students do it by hand.

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perl4ever
Every time someone does something new at work, they "lost their job" in a
manner of speaking. But to equate that with the ordinary sense of losing a job
seems like sophistry to me. As a programmer, you shouldn't be doing anything
more than once if possible, which means every task should be new.

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erik_seaberg
"Here's an algorithm, translate it to opcodes for this machine" used to be a
full-time job for human beings. They weren't designing software the way we do,
they were compiling what someone else had already designed. Our role is
automating rote work, but we have to accept that we're ending the demand for
certain jobs. Not every programmer became a systems analyst.

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perl4ever
That is the same job as any programmer does today. I've done it, in the
absence of an assembler, so I think I should know. I also know that
programmers in the 50s who were thought of as like secretaries, adjuncts to
the real thinkers/designers/engineers were basically the same as programmers
today, not FAANG programmers, but mundane business programmers.

You want an AI to program? Give it this and watch it go all HAL 9000:

[https://www.bountysource.com/issues/8705271-no-support-
for-m...](https://www.bountysource.com/issues/8705271-no-support-for-multi-
page-unbreakableblocks)

...you want to...break...unbreakable blocks??

Sure. You know, do _what I mean_ , not what I say...

Programming is a social activity, and programmers are _not_ computers.

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ratsmack
Until AI has desire, imagination and a sense of purpose, I don't think
programmers will be losing too many jobs right away.

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greenyoda
And until AI can talk to the people who are paying for the code and figure out
what, exactly, they want the code to do, they won't be able to write useful or
correct code. (Think of how many business people you've met who can give
useful specs to a developer.)

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ratsmack
Future news article: "AI talks to exec to determine software requirements,
suffers nervous breakdown"

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rolph
how about this?

AI is writing code, so its not a far stretch, for AI to edit code, on the fly
between hops, so whatever you send can be individually edited before the
endpoint receives it.

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ossworkerrights
Wondering how countries such as India will be affected by this.

