How will programmers ever survive the upcoming onslaughts from ChatGPT, CoPilot, Bard, etc on their jobs?

[prahladyeri]

From the client or business owner perspective, a ChatGPT or CoPilot is as much a programmer as a human is - in the sense that both of them can churn up source code on demand to accomplish a particular solution.

For now, these AI Models aren’t exactly super smart or sentient enough to say fix a bug on your WordPress installation or deploy a non-trivial Flask application. But that day isn’t very far when these things will start happening.

Even as we speak, these AI Models are already smart enough to perform some of the common tasks like “Write an SQL for creating this invoice table for me” or “Write a GUI Form for data entry for this table”. Their code isn’t perfect but still good enough to require only a few reviews from the senior or “Editor” level programmer. In this situation, many junior programmers won’t be needed at all as their work is being done by these AI Models, and they could be laid off from their jobs - in fact, most companies are already doing that every day if you keep up with the news.

But what will happen when even that senior or editor level programmer will also be not needed? Even their job will be done by ChatGPT or CoPilot some day. As a programmer working in the industry, has this prospect ever crossed your mind? Have you prepared any backup plan to deal with this?

[DanielHuebschmann]

Hello,

we have discussed this topic in detail in many chats like this one:

If AI will replace "grunt work", where are beginners supposed to, well, begin?

Senior software developers and engineers don’t just pop out of the ground, right? If AI replaces beginner work, where is there room for beginners? For what it’s worth, I am a beginner. I have zero experience in the field and am still in college. My “projects” consist of things no employer would care about. But if AI takes over these kind of tasks and projects, how would I learn to build the large scale, enterprise-level projects employers do care about? You’re supposed to start small, right? Bu…

There you will find opinions of pros actually working with all the miraculous AIs every day. Spoiler alert: They aren’t that miraculous.
There is first and foremost an onslaught of dishonest marketing to catch that investor dollar.

[Cody_Biggs]

Echoing the above. You can search the forum, and find many topics of people worried about AI replacing developers

Here is a short answer of all those topics:
AI is not going to replace developers anytime soon.

If you’re worried about AI then I suggest start learning to work with it such as prompt engineering. As it gets better in the future companies are gonna need those who can write prompts to get the best results.

[ArielLeslie]

@prahladyeri

many junior programmers won’t be needed at all as their work is being done by these AI Models

No it isn’t.

@prahladyeri

But what will happen when even that senior or editor level programmer will also be not needed?

There’s no such thing as an “editor level programmer”, but junior, mid-career, and senior programmers are still needed.

@prahladyeri

Even their job will be done by ChatGPT or CoPilot some day.

No it won’t.

@prahladyeri

As a programmer working in the industry, has this prospect ever crossed your mind?

Only in that I have this inane conversation at least once a week.

@prahladyeri

Have you prepared any backup plan to deal with this?

No.

[alvin]

I believe, AI is a tool that can enhance productivity, not replace human ingenuity. By embracing these tools and continuously improving skills, people can remain valuable in the evolving tech landscape.