Will devs lose their jobs to AI?

Major errors in AI code generation throw doubt on the timeline to replacing human workers

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For years, we humanities graduates have been told variations of the following message: you’re better off learning to code, because we’ll always need developers but writers will go the way of the dodo.

But advances in AI since 2022 have put this to the test. While human writers are no doubt being forced to compete with AI-written content, developers are also being asked to outsource more and more of their work to large language models in a bid for improved productivity.

While AI-generated code can be quick to produce and efficient to run, it also comes with associated risks such as overlooked vulnerabilities.

Are developers actually going to lose their jobs to the machine?

Highlights

"84% of developers now use AI or plan to use AI daily. But 46% of those same respondents have said they basically don't trust the accuracy of AI code. 61.7% also said they have ethical or security concerns about AI code. So forget the saturation. Even people who are using it are saying, Yeah, you know, I use it, but that doesn't mean I trust it."

"Okay, but what if we need people who have experience? What then? How do people get that experience? If junior jobs have gone, what happens when there's nobody available to double check these codebase translations?"

"Like you say, it's very murky to say the 25% of internal code, or 20 to 30% of internal code, is AI generated. Okay well, as you say, that's not production. And also, what is this internal code doing? Because if it's just 20% that does the stuff like, it checks that the coffee machine isn't about to run out of beans then, yeah, fine. "

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Rory Bathgate
Rory Bathgate
Features and Multimedia Editor

Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.

In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.

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