Ask HN: How do you see tech like ChatGPT changing the SWE profession? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you see tech like ChatGPT changing the SWE profession?

2 pointstriyambakam7 comments

The frontpage is full of examples of ChatGPT and related tech being able to implement code that is well beyond simple completions. As this tech progresses, how do you see the software engineering profession changing in regard to what the job of a SWE is and how you see yourself fitting into that? Are you worried about your job at all?

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Here's ChatGPT own answer:

> ChatGPT is very capable at producing working code that would usually consume a lot of time for a human software engineer. What role does the human engineer have in the future as technology like ChatGPT progresses?

    As technology like ChatGPT continues to progress, the role of the human software engineer may evolve and change. It is likely that ChatGPT and other advanced AI systems will be able to automate many of the routine and repetitive tasks that are currently performed by human software engineers, such as writing code, debugging, and testing. This could potentially free up human software engineers to focus on more complex and challenging tasks that require higher-level thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

    However, it is important to note that the development and deployment of AI systems like ChatGPT also requires the expertise and guidance of human software engineers. AI systems cannot design, build, or operate themselves, and they rely on human engineers to provide the necessary knowledge, skills, and oversight. Therefore, the human software engineer will continue to play a crucial role in the future of AI and software development, even as AI systems become more capable and advanced.

This sounds like a pretty curated answer.

It just means that sites like StackOverflow, Leetcode, Hackerrank, etc are quite frankly worthless.

But on the other hand and cutting through the ChatGPT hype, given that all it does is give an output without transparently giving an explanation, it is not going to be replacing anything serious and critical anything soon.

This isn't going to be free forever and I wouldn't completely build and entire startup on someone else's API in the long term.

The amount of software developers has been growing exponentially. We will need no code and ML just to keep up with the pattern. I predict within 15 years 90% of society will be able to create custom apps and web pages with the same dynamicism that a programmer does nowadays

Yeah that's interesting, it certainly seems true in reverse that what software developers were doing 15 years ago is now trivial, as well. So I wonder what software engineers now should learn to stay ahead. My own thinking and answer to that is being an ML engineer

Is it though? Is it any more trivial today to put together a CRUD+/line of business app than it was with VB6?

Excel is older than 15 years and still fulfills its niche just like always.

What were we doing 15 years ago that is trivial today.

Other than incremental productivity/Intellisense+ improvements (with a mixed reception) from Copilot I am waiting with bated breath to see this ML revolution of software dev. Unless this changes the market for ML engineer will be similar to that of compiler engineer - an essential but very limited market.

Will make it easier to learn programming and program in different languages. Developer productivity will probably increase. Headcount of developer teams might reduce. Exciting times for sure.

PS: ChatGPT was NOT used to generate this reply.

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