A couple reasons why I am not scared of AI taking my job:
1. They are trained to be average coders.
The way LLMs are trained is by giving them lots of examples of previous coding tasks. By definition, half of those examples are below average. Unless there is a breakthrough on how they are trained any above average coder won't have anything to worry about.
2. They are a tool that can (and should) be used by humans.
Computers are much better at chess than any human, but a human with a computer is better than any computer. The same is true with a coding LLM. Any SWE who can work with an LLM will be much better than any LLM.
3. There is enough work for both.
I have never worked for a company where I have had less work when I left than when I started. I worked for one company where it was estimated that I had about 2 years worth of work to do and 7 years later, when I left, I had about 5 years of work left. Hopefully LLMs will be able to take some of the tedious work so we can focus on harder tasks, but most likely the more we are able to accomplish the more there will be to accomplish.
1. They are trained to be average coders.
The way LLMs are trained is by giving them lots of examples of previous coding tasks. By definition, half of those examples are below average. Unless there is a breakthrough on how they are trained any above average coder won't have anything to worry about.
2. They are a tool that can (and should) be used by humans.
Computers are much better at chess than any human, but a human with a computer is better than any computer. The same is true with a coding LLM. Any SWE who can work with an LLM will be much better than any LLM.
3. There is enough work for both.
I have never worked for a company where I have had less work when I left than when I started. I worked for one company where it was estimated that I had about 2 years worth of work to do and 7 years later, when I left, I had about 5 years of work left. Hopefully LLMs will be able to take some of the tedious work so we can focus on harder tasks, but most likely the more we are able to accomplish the more there will be to accomplish.