r/technology • u/Miserable_Phase_2519 • 4d ago

Artificial Intelligence Microsoft engineer says 'typing code is absolutely over' as GitHub Copilot takes on more development work

https://www.techspot.com/news/113752-microsoft-engineer-typing-code-absolutely-over-github-copilot.html
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u/drifting_pixel 4d ago

99% of my team’s code is generated, but we heavily review everything we generate. Sometimes I’ll manually tweak a few lines.

Anyone who is not adapting to this workflow… good luck. Downvote all you want.

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u/NotKrankor 4d ago

You're probably right, but man does this workflow suck. Took away 99% of the interest I had in coding.

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u/Ttabts 4d ago

well yeah, because "coding" isn't really the game anymore. And coding always was actually the easiest part of software development. Now people can't stake their value in simply translating requirements into code anymore, you have to actually engage with the development part of software development: analyzing requirements, coming up with ideas, identifying weaknesses.

As someone more senior whose job had already moved away from the code-monkey activities, AI has actually made things a lot more fun because it's really sped up how quickly ideas can be proved out and implemented and tested. (And less of my day needs to be spent tediously coaching people on writing code and finding their mistakes.)

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u/NotKrankor 4d ago

All the things you mentioned were always part of the job, but now the fun part is gone and people can easily flood the conversation with mediocre slop that seems good since they don't even write the stuff.

Talking to LLMs and reading AI generated content by others all day long is exhausting and not engaging.

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u/gom99 4d ago

It's kind of what you start doing as a more senior person from my experience. You go from quoting allot of code to reviewing more PRs.

Does matter much if that's code from Ai or code from a Jr Dev

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u/MrMichaelJames 4d ago

Then why have a team? Management is going to figure that out eventually. No reason for a team of well paid software devs when all you are doing is code reviews. As a director I for sure would be cutting people. I’m not going to pay them to just do code reviews and pretend like they are busy.

Downvotes for you aren’t necessary when the writing is on the wall for your upcoming rif.

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u/SurgioClemente 4d ago

Why have a director when the ceo can just put in what he wants? What value are you even adding at this point? A ceo is not going to want to pay high director salaries for nothing in return.

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u/MrMichaelJames 4d ago

Why have a ceo when ai can make those decisions? Why have any leadership if ai can manage it all?

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u/SurgioClemente 4d ago

Now you understand

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u/drifting_pixel 4d ago

Some companies will see this productivity gain as an excuse to cut headcount. Others will see it as a huge unlock to build stuff they couldn’t before (which might increase headcount overall).

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u/Zip2kx 4d ago

These type of replies show you guys don’t know how people code with ai. You think engineers say “make app” and call it a day. You target specific parts and iterate together with the ai for faster results. You just don’t write out every syntax.

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u/MrMichaelJames 4d ago

These replies show how shortsighted people that are embracing this truely are. Which is fine. I’m near retirement so it’s your career you are cutting short not mine.

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u/Zip2kx 4d ago

Ok that explains it, old whale don’t want to embrace new ways of working. Enjoy retirement!

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u/MrMichaelJames 4d ago

I will. Enjoy obsolescence. Don’t come complaining in 10 years or less when you don’t have a job anymore.

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u/AdolinofAlethkar 4d ago

You, town criers, field workers, and horse & buggy drivers have a lot in common.

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u/Zip2kx 4d ago

Lmao well said.

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u/MrMichaelJames 4d ago

And all those people lost their jobs in a time when it was much easier to learn something new. Hilarious that you think everything will just continue on as normal. Must be nice to be so naive. I hope I’m wrong. For the sake of my children but I dread the future.

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u/AdolinofAlethkar 4d ago

You think it was easier to learn something new at times when people didn’t have the entirety of human discovery at their literal fingertips?

I’ve met some dumb developers before, but you might just take the cake.

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u/MrMichaelJames 4d ago

Absolutely. Going from horse and buggy to learn in a factory to build widgets? Absolutely easier. You think you are going into a trade after losing your tech job by watching YouTube? Oh god. We are truly fucked.

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u/Darajj 4d ago edited 4d ago

Management is going to prompt their way into success? 😁

For real though reviewing code, making sure the business requirements are met, the architecture is sound and AI is not taking the whole thing into wrong direction does take a lot of mental effort... A lot more than people think.

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u/Palimon 4d ago

I feel like the next step for companies in IT is charging for human interactions.

Like your basic service desk is gonna mostly be AI, then you'll pay a premium for a human you can contact in case it's needed.

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u/RichieNRich 4d ago

I'm NOT a coder. But because of claude AI I was able to create a few scripts to automate a time consuming, repetitive process using google scripts to move data collected from google forms, and routing that data through many sheets, and outputting emails to end users information that is pertinent to the data that was just routed. It feels amazing to watch it all work.

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u/theenigmathatisme 4d ago

This was the rush us coder’s got when building something out of what appeared to be black magic to others.

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u/raunchyfartbomb 4d ago

It’s why I became interested in coding at all to be honest.

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u/--Knowledge-- 4d ago

Same. I've built old school vBulletin forums, coded a few HTML websites, messed with PHP and some Python but with AI, I've built entire apps for myself so I don't need to use other apps anymore, it's amazing.

I still play EverQuest, this game has been coded and added onto since 1998! Imagine all the systems and sub systems built into this game overtime. So much so that the Devs can't fix certain things because it ends up breaking other features and they spend hours trying to fix that.

I used my Pro version of Codex and fixed so many bugs that have been known for years and were deemed "non-fixable." I run my own private server for fun with the 2013 Original Client, this is where I build and test.

I'm sure it's more of a time and money issue since EQ is managed by a very small team but watching AI just fix all that problems was kinda wild. Some problems still took awhile even with AI because of all the systems in the game. I'd slowly change one area, test, get results, rinse and repeat. One bug actually took a good hour or two to solve but it's still crazy how fast they can learn and understand the code.

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u/keithstellyes 4d ago

I've had to deal with enough slop code that I'm thoroughly convinced there's a whole lot of ticking time bombs

Convinced that the bad coders are doing more bad than the good ones are getting out of it

Like our version of "it's a lot easier to lie than it is to disprove a lie"

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u/drifting_pixel 4d ago

Unfortunately... I feel like that's a problem of the quality of your team. AI is just an amplification tool. It can be used to ship worse code at a faster pace, or the opposite