Submission + - AI won't take your job - but you may get fired anyway (radicalpolitics.org)
johanneswilm writes: For a handful of very specific engineering problems, one can specify hard requirements. One might ask, for instance: how many sensors, how much CPU and GPU power, and how many lines of code does an autonomous vehicle need in order to drive more safely than a human driver in 99.99 percent of cases?
But for the vast majority of software, there is no such fixed number. We can simply add more and more features to make software more convenient for users and to add functions that no one ever thought possible in the past. This elasticity of demand — the economist’s term for how much more of something people want when it becomes cheaper — is the key to understanding why AI-assisted programming is unlikely to eliminate programming jobs.
Much of the programming world, particularly web development, is centered around the United States, where shareholder value is the legally and culturally dominant corporate priority. The influential investor class, dominated by the wealthier segments of the baby boomer generation, has been told by AI company CEOs that large language models can replace software engineers. These investors expect technology companies to demonstrate commitment to AI by reducing their engineering headcount, regardless of whether such reductions make technical sense.
But for the vast majority of software, there is no such fixed number. We can simply add more and more features to make software more convenient for users and to add functions that no one ever thought possible in the past. This elasticity of demand — the economist’s term for how much more of something people want when it becomes cheaper — is the key to understanding why AI-assisted programming is unlikely to eliminate programming jobs.
Much of the programming world, particularly web development, is centered around the United States, where shareholder value is the legally and culturally dominant corporate priority. The influential investor class, dominated by the wealthier segments of the baby boomer generation, has been told by AI company CEOs that large language models can replace software engineers. These investors expect technology companies to demonstrate commitment to AI by reducing their engineering headcount, regardless of whether such reductions make technical sense.
