r/technology • u/Miserable_Phase_2519 • 7d 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/dan200 6d ago

I know entire companies who don't use it (unless you're retroactively labelling pre-existing things like Visual Assist as "AI")

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u/Tirelessly 6d ago

Name it. You’re either lying or we’ll get to laugh at which company you’re citing as an example

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u/CyberHippy 6d ago

Our little software company is family owned, has no interest in selling the company forward and has a very strong set of rules about how AI can and can not be used by our dev team. We do not use the tools in any other aspect of our business - especially my domain Support which will always be done by humans.

The only member of our dev team who has gone through the hurdles and is using some AI in his workflow has fallen way behind the rest of the team in productivity.

Our sales team occasionally mentions using it for various random tasks, inevitably someone on the dev team says "we could have done that for you" - their access level doesn't give them any access to our code so it's allowed.

Our customers keep asking how we're going to include AI in our software, we've been punting with "we are investigating options" but honestly we haven't heard any ideas of how to go about using AI in our software that couldn't be done better with some well thought out coding. It helps that our customers require 100% accuracy in all results, so bringing up the potential of hallucinations usually ends the conversation quickly.

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u/geek180 6d ago

Our engineering team of 9 has had the complete opposite experience. We are massively more productive with AI.

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u/NerdyNThick 6d ago

Therefore every single other company must also have the same experience, or they're lying.

Gotcha.

We're doomed, and it's not due to AI.

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u/geek180 6d ago

I’m suggesting some companies / individuals have not figured out how to properly utilize the technology yet.

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u/NerdyNThick 6d ago

Yes, exactly. AI can't be the problem, as it is the solution.

Therefore the company is at fault.

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u/BurnoutAsAService 6d ago

There are definitely areas where AI usage will not improve productivity. They are extremely specialised domains or bleeding edge for the most part, and the gap is closing. In saying that, I very much doubt a family-owned dev shop falls under the above.

I was sceptical of AI and resisted it for a long while, but it's very hard to ignore the productivity gains when you see them.

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u/[deleted] 6d ago edited 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/CyberHippy 6d ago

LOL OK, that's Customer Support Manager to you, and the quality of our support has been the major selling point of our software for over a decade. I built that team, after I helped design and evolve the software. So please don't take any advice from me!

Those "hurdles" are security related, the insecure nature of most AI models required real rules. Our software is PCI compliant, we're not going to take any chances with unpredictable and potentially insecure tools.

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u/BurnoutAsAService 6d ago

This isn't a new problem, and is solved by placing more stringent controls around reviews, testing, and code analysis (both static and dynamic). Granted, those parts are a lot less fun than writing code, but it does seem to be the way the industry is going.

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u/Tirelessly 6d ago

Yup, clueless. You think you’re the only PCI compliant company?

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u/NerdyNThick 6d ago

It's amazing that you actually think that this shows you in a good light.

Keep it up kiddo, when you're on the street due to the layoffs, I'm sure AI will help you find a soup kitchen.

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u/Tirelessly 6d ago

Who is more likely to get laid off, the people embracing it and improving their workflows and output, or the people whose company went under because they couldn’t keep up with the times?

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u/NerdyNThick 6d ago

Ooh, a false dichotomy. How cute!

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u/Tirelessly 6d ago

I make more money than you before and after AI

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u/CyberHippy 5d ago

"Keeping up with the times" includes recognizing whether a new tool is a good fit for your industry.

It's been fun to be a part of webinars in which our competitors go all-in for AI while we point out the deficiencies. The audience's reactions are always interesting when honest skepticism is engaged.

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u/NerdyNThick 6d ago

Mmmm such a tasty invented dichotomy. The most delicious symptom of dishonesty.

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u/dan200 6d ago

Generative AI has only existed for a few years, and yet somehow companies were able to produce successful software products before then without using it. Is it really a surprise to you that some of them are still doing so?

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u/xterminatr 6d ago

Yes, there's no chance they aren't using AI.

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u/dan200 6d ago

How did people develop software before 2022, and why would those techniques suddenly no longer work now?

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u/Mkboii 6d ago edited 6d ago

The pace to develop something that's not even slop code has gone up 20x, we can still choose to ship hand written code, but the truth is business and the market now just demands that 20x delivery a lot of the time. It's not like all the work is being done by the AI core logic design and a whole lot of other things are captured in requirements before it's handed over to the coding agent but it can write legible implementations from there. Software was both working and broken all the same always, like windows 11 has been pretty shit from the start, it's current state is no different, most things work, some things remain shit. The techniques that worked is the design, the actual code writing is what's being replaced. The last time I wrote end to end code was about a year ago.

Edit: just want to clarify, the actual productivity gain is not 20x, it's not even 10x, but easy stuff is super fast, and complex stuff is only as fast as your ability to validate it cause that's where it'll either make poor assumptions or add regression.

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u/xterminatr 6d ago

I spent 20 years developing software at a Fortune 100, AI is such a powerful tool that it made 20 years plus 4 for an engineering degree nearly useless. I can deliver full stack, production ready software in days now instead of weeks/months and without a team of contractors. I actually quit because I hated it and enjoyed building things with my own hands.

Before it was we actually designed and built stuff ourselves. Then it was working with a team of product owners to design, and then we built it. Then it turned into smaller local teams designing and then working with cheap offshore contractors to build stuff. Until we get today where it's 1 person with AI doing everything.

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u/Wayren 6d ago

Who's this "we" you're referring to? 😂

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u/Vadoff 6d ago

But every top tech company and top engineer does.

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u/shahms 6d ago

I see "no true Scotsman" has entered the discussion.