I’m a Developer and I may get Replaced by AI in the Future
Imagine A Future Controlled by AI. Are we going to witness a Terminator or Robo-Sci-Fi movie-like situation?
In a recent interview, the CEO of Stability AI, the maker of Stable Diffusion, Emad Mostaque said that there will be no programmers in the next five years.
Wohh!! This is a bold statement by the Stability AI founder. At first, I thought it was some kinda baseless statement. But then I was like, why in this world a CEO of an AI company delivers such type of statements on a public platform without having any evidence? So, where is the evidence? I started digging the internet and this is what I got.
Wait a minute! Is Sam Altman scared of his creation? Why? Haven’t we all heard this story before? Right, Robert J. Oppenheimer the father of the Atom Bomb also got scared after he built an Atom Bomb, like what he has done, This will destroy humanity someday. But In this case, we are not directly affected, because we don’t have access to the Atom Bomb. But AI already reached us, through mobile phones, laptops, smartwatches and whatnot.
But this isn’t a scary part. Because we recently witnessed the launch of tons of AI tools in every field. And it is pretty good actually. Most of the creative fields like, image generation, content creation, video generation, video editing, writing codes, etc. saw the dawn of the AI. And I guess you have already used a few tools like Dalle-2, Mid journey, Chatgpt and Github Copilot. The hours and days of work are done in seconds by these AI tools. It’s amazing, isn’t it?
But wait.. wait.. wait..!!! These are high-level thinking jobs and require immense creativity, and AI can do these things in seconds. I mean it takes a heart out of an artist to design an art. Every working apps and websites has witnessed the sleepless nights of developers. And these AI tools can write codes and design art in seconds. So, How does it gonna take jobs? Isn’t this AGI (Artificial general intelligence) gonna help developers more? After all, a few lines of text prompt can generate codes. Well, here the real game begins…
Let’s take an example of a Software company. The company is designed to hire developers at each level based on experience and responsibility. First, they hire Interns, which are like base-level of developers. Then they go for the SDE-1 job role. SDE1 is the first level of a software engineer working in a company. The company does not have many expectations from an SDE1 because he is new to work and could possibly make mistakes. SDE2 is the second level of a software engineer working in a company. The company expects an SDE2 position to generate high-level software programs for different services. SDE3 is the third and last level of a software engineer working in a company. An SDE3 is a senior-level position and plays a very important role in the company.
But after the launch of the generative AI tools like chatGPT and Google Bard, Is it still relevant to differentiate developers based on the tag of SDE1, SDE2 and SDE3? Well No, as per the News articles, the ChatGPT has passed the Google coding interview for level 3 developers. Data from GitHub reveals that “41% of all code right now is AI-generated. I mean this is huge. It has been less than a year since these AI tools were launched, and we are already witnessing such things. Imagine the scenario 4–5 years from now. With over time these AI tools are going to be far more powerful, far more accurate. And what you have to do is write some text prompt and BOOM!! Job Done!
Yes! The AI has opened the gate for all to do some techie stuff. 3–5 years from now, A guy from a non-computer science background can build a website and modify it. The dependability upon the software developers is going to end. Suppose a small startup has a team of 4 members, 2 frontend developers and 2 backend developers. The work of the 4 developers could easily be replaced by 2 developers or even 1 developer who knows a bit of both and frontend works. Now, Imagine this scenario on a mass scale, Suppose a big giant tech company started mass layoff. So, yes! These AI gonna affect developers' lives. I am also not denying that AI gonna make the life of developers easier. But here we are talking about earning a livelihood. After the end of college, most guys have to pay student loans, rent, bills, etc, and Imagine the situation where you don’t get a job after your college because of AI. It’s scary! Isn’t it?
So, What’s the solution?
Keeping this reality in mind, we can conclude that, On a scale of 1–100, a guy with coding experience between 40 and 50 can significantly boost their proficiency to an impressive 80–90 by leveraging AI tools. So, the old tricks of learning Data structures and Algorithms to take the job are going to vanish in the future. The hiring companies will expect more from you because of the competition in the market. You have to learn more than data structure and algorithms. You have to possess multidimensional skillsets. Let’s be honest, Suppose, you are the CEO of your company, would you hire 5 developers with mediocre skills level or hire 2 developers who know how to work with AI and get your job done faster?
I know I might be sounding scary! But I’m not here to scare you. I am just here to spit facts. With the level of advancement we see right now in the AI fields within one year of the launch, it may be possible that in the future the entire tech department will be handled by AI. Only one or two guys need to push the code to review and push the code to production.
In the future, those who control these AIs will control the world. Welcome to MATRIX.
I am ending this article with a famous Bhagwad Gita quote (Chapter 2, Verse 47):
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन |
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ||
Meaning: Your right is to perform your duty only, but never to its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.
Thank You!
