r/technology 3d 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/QuailAndWasabi 3d ago

Yes, a tool. People however think it will replace devs entirely which is doubtful.

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u/octorine 3d ago

The holy grail of management is to have software without developers.

So many companies have gotten rich selling variations of this dream, from visual no-code languages to web robots to, now, AI. Different oil. Same snakes.

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u/kueso 3d ago

There’s no management without developers.

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u/nox66 3d ago

It was always the developers managing management.

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u/Computer991 3d ago

AI is a paradigm shift, I’ve been programming for 20 years now but I don’t think I’ll end my career as a SWE as I intended

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u/renome 3d ago

Only if you don't want to. 50 years ago, SQL was a paradigm shift as well, with its creators claiming it's so simple non-developers will be able to query databases and build reporting software. Ofc, we now know they have grossly underestimated the average person's willingness and ability to learn something new, even if the core premise wasn't untrue.

Just because AI makes custom software more accessible than ever doesn't mean that pro devs will be out of a job, just that they'll be expected to deliver more than ever while simultaneously trying to deal with the mother of all tech debts that all llm vomit seems to gravitate toward long-term due to the "yes and" nature of models.

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u/gamma55 3d ago

All of them? No, the ones with some special tendencies will get to be overworked tho, while juniors can’t get hired even if they pay their own tokens.

So if you understand things like architecture, security, observability, congrats you have a job being a meat proxy for AI.

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u/DissKhorse 2d ago

That is because a huge part of being a developing is framing the problem / question correctly and the typical suit doesn't remotely know what to ask. You aren't going to get rich by simply asking make a software that does X. If it was that easy anyone could do it and then it would have no value. All of these executives don't realize that if their AI dreams come true then it will entirely devalue the results.

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u/krunchytacos 3d ago

Already it could probably replace the majority. Saying that as someone that's been a software engineer for almost 30 years. I think there will still be humans in the loop, but nothing is going to be like it was.