The Dumbest Move in Tech Right Now: Laying Off Developers Because of AI
The Dumbest Move in Tech Right Now: Laying Off Developers Because of AI
AI-assisted coding doesn’t mean fewer developers—it means more ambitious, higher-quality products
And it's intentional. Lay off the workers. Implement AI Slop. Slop does sloppy work. Hire back workers as Temps or Contractors. No benefits. Lower pay.
Like all of Capitalism. It's a fucking scam. A conjob. A new innovation in fucking over workers. (Ironically the only "innovation" ever directly produced by Capitalism)
I don’t honestly believe that AI can save me time as a developer. I’ve tried several AI agents and every single one cost me time. I had to hold its hand while it fumbled around the code base, then fix whatever it eventually broke.
I’d imagine companies using AI will need to hire more developers to undo all the damage the AI does to their code base.
That middle graph is absolute fucking bullshit. AI is not fucking ever going to replace 75% of developers or I've been working way too fucking hard for way to little pay these past 30 years. It might let you cut staff 5-10% because it enables folks to accomplish certain things a bit faster.
Christ on a fucking crutch. Ask developers who are currently using AI (not the ones working for AI companies) how much time and effort it actually saves them. They will tell you.
Even if AI is an actual tool that improves the software development speed of human developers (rather than something that ends up taking away in time spending reviewing, correcting and debugging the AI generated code, the time savings it gives in automatically writing the code), it's been my experience in almost 30 years of my career as a Software Engineer that every single tooling improvements that makes us capable of doing more in the same amount of time is eaten up by increasing demands on the capabilities of the software we make.
Thirty years ago user interfaces were either CLI or pretty simple with no animations. A Software Systems was just a software application - it ran on a single machine with inputs and outputs on that machine - not a multi-tiered octopus involving a bunch of back end data stores, then control and data retrieval middle tiers, then another tier doing UI generation using a bunch of intermediate page definition languages and a frontends rendering those pages to a user and getting user input, probably with some local code thrown into the mix. Ditto for how cars are now mostly multiple programs running of various microcontrollers with one or more microprocessors in the mix all talking over a dedicated protocol. Ditto for how your frigging "smart" washing machine talking to your dedicated smartphone app for it probably involves a 3rd machine in the form of some server from the manufacturer and the whole thing is running over TCP/IP and using the Internet (hence depending on a lot more machines with their dedicated software such as Routers and DNS servers) rather than some point-to-point direct protocol (such as Serial) like in the old days.
Anyways, the point being that even if AI actually delivers more upsides than downsides as a tool to improve programmer output, that stuff is going to be eaten up by increasing demands on the complexity of the software we do, same as the benefits of better programming languages were, the benefits of better IDEs were, of the widespread availability of pre-made libraries for just about everything were, of templating were, of the easiness to find solutions for the problem one is facing from other people on the Internet were, of better software development processes were, of source control were, of colaborative development tools were and so on.
Funnily enough, for all those things there were always people claiming it would make the life of programmers easier, when in fact all it did was make the expectations on the software being implemented go up, often just in terms of bullshit that's not really useful (the "smart" washing machine using networking to talk to a smartphone app so that the machine manufacturers can save a few dollars by not putting as many physical controllers in it, is probably a good example)
Its not that dumb as you think, its way dumber.
I'm 90% sure it's something to do with the stock market, buy backs and companies having to do cryptic shit to keep up with a fake value to their shares
Developersdevelopersdevelopersdevelopers,developersdevelopersdevelopersdevelopersAIAI-assisted coding […] means more ambitious, higher-quality products
I'm skeptical. From my own (limited) experience, my use-cases and projects, and the risks of using code that may include hallucinations.
there are roughly 29 million software developers worldwide serving over 5.4 billion internet users. That's one developer for every 186 users,
That's an interesting way to look at it, and that would be a far better relation than I would have expected. Not every software developer serves internet users though.
Right now? They’ve been doing this for two years!
This is so fucking sad to acknowledge that a lot of people just want to squeeze any profit left in the industry, even though they know AI is a great tool for developers, not a replacement. They must know that because anyone who can access it can replicate the same things, making these products uncompetitive.
An interesting trend is these comments: the worse a code base is, the more helpful AI is for expanding it (without actually fixing the underlying problems like repetitive overly long unexpressive code).
You know, it'll be a boomerang because really I've hoarded all information that is actually worth a damn and nothing's really going on in America. Such a boring country. You know, and I think these mass shooters are just kids that are bored, and disturbed, but definitely bored. All work and no play, makes a dull boy. These services that are ran by AI are not even anything that I need. I don't even know how the hype train really gets its funding. Other than more hype, but eventually some dumbass is going to be left with the bag and I think we're approaching that. I think the bursting bubble is coming. I recommend installing Linux on your computer. the Circle Jerk of Dumb Fuckery is coming to an end. And when I think about the government, it's fucking useless. So I don't need big tech and I don't need the government. I mean I do but I don't. It's like, thanks for nothing. So when I say to the billionaire, it's your move, Jackass. I'm really implying that he's got a go-full, totalitarian in order to get me to move on the chess board. America has always maintained this fake-ass democracy by managing perception, but if people around the world actually saw what our governments willing to do, the people in other countries would want to divorce themselves from the Yankee and then eventually they will grab the reins of their own countries and the imperialist empire of soft power America will dissolve. Which is the accelerationism that I would like because it's time to bust out the guillotine. Let the suckers fall let shit fall apart. It's getting to a point. I just think about Salazar in Portugal. I think the rich people will try to stir up some kind of civil war nonsense, but it seems like we're headed there though, but I don't know how that will all pan out. But I mean, I know the right wing idiots are just reactionary, and it's because their broke as fuck. You give em cookie and they'll calm down. The simple mind is sometimes cute and sometimes scary.
The money supply growth is far below the average, its tight monetary policy, so we are going to see a slowing job market.