AI's Impact on Developers: A Looming Threat or a Productivity Boost?

thebookwormsburrow.com

1 pointarijo2 comments

Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

Although my coworkers and I have yet to figure out how to use LLMs in a way that actually increases productivity. I also don't see them representing any sort of "looming threat" to devs, so right now, my personal answer is "neither".

I've been using an LLM as the initial "search" starting point for queries that I used to go to Google for. Many times I can shorten my time to finding the answer because I don't have to check multiple sites in the search results. Other times, the LLM can help me refine my understanding of the problem or the question I ask.

Both of these save me time, but the LLM is still just a tool I add to my belt, not something I'm worried about as a "looming threat". They definitely don't scale to the "build this app for me..." or "add this feature to my program..."

I still haven't integrated an LLM into my IDE in a meaningful way, the UX is still an open question for me.

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