General Discussion

I read the Marcus article and yea, he is exaggerating. You aren't going to put together sound architecture and ensure secure code for large software systems by prompting some things just "letting it rip".

But the leaps ChatGPT and some other AI platforms have taken has me worried I might end up having to find a new career before I'm eligible for retirement. And I have no clue what that career would even be in terms of making the money I make at my senior experience level.

I'm 46 years old, I have like 20 more years to go. Technology tends to evolve at an accelerated pace. I full believe "they" will be able to replace me with AI sooner rather than later.

As it stands right now, I am still needed. I write my own damn code. And in terms of AI, someone could potentially hand me snippets of AI generated code and I can go through and clean it up, correct where its wrong, add security and put it out there. But the amount of work doing that compared to me writing everything myself is substantially smaller.

The company I work for has promised us that they will not replace us with AI. And they've been a trustworthy company to work for. But if anything were to happen that I were to lose this job for whatever reason, I really don't know what happens next. Maybe some other company would hire me for far less pay to do exactly what I just described.

But then what happens when they refine these models to the point that some junior level dev with very little knowledge of the inner workings can, as I said, put together sound architecture and ensure secure code for large software systems by prompting some things and just "let it rip".

I have every reason in the world to have disdain for what is happening because its a personal threat to my ability to work and make the money I need to retire with dignity some day. And I know you obviously share that disdain. But don't let that disdain get in the way of accepting reality for what it is.

AI is not as good as the people who are making money from it, want to pretend it is.

But its also much better than AI skeptics want to admit and has the potential to actually live up to the hype within the next 2 to 5 years.

We don't need denial of AI's unfortunate potential. Denial helps no one. What we need are laws that will protect so many of us that could lose everything otherwise.