A field guide that also covers why we need to rethink our expectations, and what software engineering really is. A guest post by software engineer and engineering leader Addy Osmani
So when AI replaces junior devs as a partner for the boring stuff for seniors, it will be interesting to see how juniors can even get to a senior level. I guess that whole reviewing, understanding and refactoring AI generated code needs to be a guided learning by a senior.
The idea that junior devs will go away is a lie theyll feed us till the end. My job is to dictate how these tools should be used for hundreds of employees and there’s a huge clash in expectations vs reality.
The AI slop should help the juniors, make them more useful “out of the box” by essentially rewording and customizing a google search answer, and save time for seniors explaining. Even the best models are lying and cannot efficiently have all this context, not any time soon. It currently takes enormous amounts of power to do what a brain can do with the energy equivalent of a peanut. That’s just not cost effective.
The only reason they are able to do it is because they are dumping stolen profits disguised as investments and “a bad economy/inflation”. Theyre essentially doing this off the back of tax payer. Once electricity starts costing what it should cost right now without the massive investments, it would never work. The current elite will take us for a ride until the next schtick though, and we’re all worst off for it. Senior engineers are just doing 1.25x the work and C suite is lying about AI.
I’d say a lot of this isn’t really sustainable. Also you need to strike some balance. The senior devs also can’t spend substancially more time correcting the AI’s mistakes. I mean AI time is practically for free. But if that weighs down on the senior devs, they’re the ones with a decent salary. It has to make them more efficient, or in the end it’ll be more expensive.
Also same applies to the rest of the world. Sure we’d need to change how junior/senior works. But I’d argue we’d also need to change the whole society if entry level jobs and low income jobs get replaced by machines. I mean these people need food on their tables, too. So we’d really need to change workplace hierarchy, education, plus the entirety of how salaries and income works.
So when AI replaces junior devs as a partner for the boring stuff for seniors, it will be interesting to see how juniors can even get to a senior level. I guess that whole reviewing, understanding and refactoring AI generated code needs to be a guided learning by a senior.
The idea that junior devs will go away is a lie theyll feed us till the end. My job is to dictate how these tools should be used for hundreds of employees and there’s a huge clash in expectations vs reality.
The AI slop should help the juniors, make them more useful “out of the box” by essentially rewording and customizing a google search answer, and save time for seniors explaining. Even the best models are lying and cannot efficiently have all this context, not any time soon. It currently takes enormous amounts of power to do what a brain can do with the energy equivalent of a peanut. That’s just not cost effective.
The only reason they are able to do it is because they are dumping stolen profits disguised as investments and “a bad economy/inflation”. Theyre essentially doing this off the back of tax payer. Once electricity starts costing what it should cost right now without the massive investments, it would never work. The current elite will take us for a ride until the next schtick though, and we’re all worst off for it. Senior engineers are just doing 1.25x the work and C suite is lying about AI.
Let’s hope it does a metaverse / web 3
I’d say a lot of this isn’t really sustainable. Also you need to strike some balance. The senior devs also can’t spend substancially more time correcting the AI’s mistakes. I mean AI time is practically for free. But if that weighs down on the senior devs, they’re the ones with a decent salary. It has to make them more efficient, or in the end it’ll be more expensive.
Also same applies to the rest of the world. Sure we’d need to change how junior/senior works. But I’d argue we’d also need to change the whole society if entry level jobs and low income jobs get replaced by machines. I mean these people need food on their tables, too. So we’d really need to change workplace hierarchy, education, plus the entirety of how salaries and income works.