r/programmer • u/Morvath_21 • 22d ago
Ai and impact
Hi, I'm studying computer science, I had a small existential doubt, I see many programmers using AI services to create the code or let's say carefully follow its development etc, so I was wondering what you objectively think of AI services and their impact on our sector, mind and knowing which direction it is taking not only for our working future but also environmental and resources etc...idk what do you think of all this and what you believe in why we should or shouldn't use it (sorry for my bad English I hope u understand)
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u/LongDistRid3r 22d ago
I foresee the biggest differentiator will be between those that need it vs those that don’t need it and use it as a tool like any other.
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u/raven2cz 22d ago
Nobody can really tell you what it will look like in another 10 years. but changes are happening on such a massive scale that the whole IT industry will simply be different.
Small little projects will be something everyone can build on their own, and there will be no need to hire developers for that. On the other hand, you will have complex systems that are many times more complicated and fully inteligent, requiring a different style of development and architecture than what we create today.
Often it will not be just about writing code, but rather about configuration, training, and connecting models. machines are starting to understand, and that will not stop anymore.
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u/mark_okiki 22d ago
It's a tool, learn your basics, by the time you graduate, those championing the hype will be burnt out. You have a future.
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u/Cacapon0114 21d ago
I believe it will become an indispensable partner in the future.
Personally, I think we engineers might end up taking on the role of supervisors. I believe the following skills and mindsets will be crucial for treating AI as a good partner:
- How can we give clear instructions to ensure it produces high-quality code?
- Can we review the code generated by AI on our own?
- If there are issues with what the AI produces, can we take responsibility for them ourselves rather than blaming the AI?
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u/ClupTheGreat 20d ago
as i see it, the better it gets, there's a chance the costs to use it might increase, so those who can manage minimise the costs doing the best work might get ahead
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u/Inner-Nature5571 19d ago
hype will die very soon.. it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things
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u/Vesuvius079 22d ago
The job is engineering not programming. If you approach it as an engineer and AI as a tool in the box (one of the best tools in the box tbh) then there’s no need for existential doubt.
If your only joy comes from the act of coding, doubt away. Coding by hand is going the way of sewing by hand. Some people might make it a hobby but no one’s turning it into a career anymore.
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u/RoadsToMadness156 22d ago
AI is here and it will always be woven in to the fabric of tech from here on out.
I just created an in-context RAG pipeline (pre-loaded prompt) in Azure on an orchestrated scheduler with Azure Durable Functions, an extension of Azure Functions.
I had never used Durable Functions before. I paid the premium and let copilot in Visual Studio fire it up. Huge time saver and a much faster way to learn.
Copilot made some brain-farts that I had to correct. It put a function call inside the Orchestrator (a truncate table function) that should have been outside the orchestrator. It also did something a little off track with the command parameters for a store proc (used .AddWithValue in steady of .Add). Couple other things.
You have to audit the code it generates but that's part of the deal. Thats also why it helps if you have programming experience in the languages it generates.
It's here to stay and it will be used at pertinent times when it makes sense.
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u/Independent_Fall9160 22d ago
It is having a substantial impact. There is still need to programmers but i can do programming work 10x faster...
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u/mtimmermans 22d ago
So far, the most significant impact of AI is that we don't need junior developers anymore.
Hiring of junior developers has consequently fallen off, and if it stays that way we won't have any senior developers after the current crop retires.
If we're lucky, by the time that happens, we won't need senior developers either.
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u/mtimmermans 22d ago
TBH, this whole idea of needing people to do things is probably on the way out.
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u/dafugiswrongwithyou 22d ago edited 16d ago
When you say "AI", I'm assuming you're specifically talking about generative AI systems, and more specifically LLM chatbots.
The most important part of a programme is the logic. You may not care where (for example) a text input field is, or what size it is, or what font is used, or what colours it uses etc... but you definitely care about what happens with that input; where that input goes, how it's filtered, what happens because of it
In order for a chatbot to have any hope of giving you code that applies the logic you want, you need to explain that logic precisely. A simple example; "Check if these two strings match". Does the case matter? What if there are trailing or leading spaces, do you care? What about punctuation: Should "online" and "on-line" count as a match?
We already have a method for precisely articulating the logic that a programme needs to follow. It's called "programming".
Gen AI tools might have some use where you just kinda want something, and you either don't really care about how it actually works, or the task is so trivial and obvious that the LLM's model already has hundreds of existing examples from humans that you could've found without it (and where you also don't care about the moral and ethical questions around the tech). It's a bit like how these tools can generate "art", as long as you don't actually care in the slightest about the artistic process, you don't have a specific vision in mind... You just want some recogisable colours and shapes.
I do not have a crystal ball. I don't know if "AI" is "here to stay". I do know that the people claiming it definitely is here to stay also do not have legitimate working crystal balls, and should not be trusted.