In short: LLMs will eventually be able to architect software. But it’s still just a tool
This is only possibly true if one of two things are true:
1. All new software can be made up of of preexisting patterns of software that can be composed. ie: There is no such thing as "novel" software, it's all just composition of existing software.
2. LLMs are capable of emergent intelligence, allowing them to express patterns that they were not trained on.
I am extremely skeptical that either of these is true.
But for building the right thing? Doubtful.
Most of a great engineer’s work isn’t writing code, but interrogating what people think their problems are, to find what the actual problems are.
In short: problem solving, not writing code.
What a load of crap.
All you're doing is describing a different job role.
What you're talking about is BA work, and a subset of engineers are great at it, but most are just ok.
You're claiming a part of the job that was secondary, and not required, is now the whole job.
The point has always been delivering the product to the customer, in any industry. Code is rarely the deliverable.
That’s my point.
Is that why most prestigious jobs grilled you like a devil on algos/system design?
> The point has always been delivering the product to the customer, in any industry. Code is rarely the deliverable.
That’s just nonsense. It’s like saying “delivering product was always the most important thing, not drinking water”.
But it's just very obvious to any software engineer worth anything that code is just one part of the job, and it's usually somewhere in the middle of a process. Understanding customer requirements, making technical decisions, maintaining the codebase, reviewing code changes/ providing feedback, responding on incidents, deciding what work to do or not to do, deciding when a constraint has to be broken, etc. There are a billion things that aren't "typing code" that an engineer does every day. To deny this is absurd to anyone who lives every day doing those things.
So you saying "but there's a coding interview" again... who cares? Why is that relevant?
No. That’s because interviews have always sucked, and have always been terrible predictors of how you do on the job. We just never had a better way of deciding except paying for a project.
> That’s just nonsense. It’s like saying “delivering product was always the most important thing, not drinking water”.
That’s… not an argument? It’s not even a strawman, it’s just unrelated.
The thing a customer has always paid for was the end product. Not the code. This is absolutely trivial to see, since a customer has never asked to read the code.
Who cares? They’re here, and they will stay here for foreseeable future.
> That’s… not an argument? It’s not even a strawman, it’s just unrelated. The thing a customer has always paid for was the end product. Not the code. This is absolutely trivial to see, since a customer has never asked to read the code.
Yeah, and they didn’t pay for the water that you drank. Without which, you know, you’ll fucking die. Code is part of the package, just like you eating and shitting in the process.
They didn't magically become great truck drivers.
Programmers do not deliver products, they deliver code to make products.
If the code is no longer needed, nor is the job. A different job will replace it with different skills required.
Again: unrelated and pointless analogy. The horse breeder would be analogous to chipmakers or companies that make computers. Turns out they have more of a job than ever. They don’t need to “become truck drivers.”
> Programmers do not deliver products, they deliver code to make products.
That’s not even a little bit true. Programmers deliver product every day: see every single startup on the planet, and most companies.
Moreover, you said programmer. I didn’t.
I said software engineer/architect, as that was what the parent comment asked.
I chose my words intentionally. I am referring to people who engage in the act of engineering or architecting software, which is definitely not limited to writing code.
Yes, a pure programmer (aka a researcher or a junior programmer) may not fare as well, for the reasons you mentioned.
But that was never who we were discussing.
If you still think the code is the point, I’m not sure we’re going to see eye to eye, and I’m going to just agree to disagree. And if that’s the case, then you’re right: you may be left behind, keyboard in hand.
Wait, I thought product and C level people are so busy all the time that they can’t fart without a calendar invite, but now you say they have time to completely replace whole org of engineers?
The commercial solutions probably don't work because they don't use the best SOTA models and/or sully the context with all kinds of guardrails and role-playing nonsense, but if you just open a new chat window in your LLM of choice (set to the highest thinking paid-tier model), it gives you truly excellent therapist advice.
In fact in many ways the LLM therapist is actually better than the human, because e.g. you can dump a huge, detailed rant in the chat and it will actually listen to (read) every word you said.
It is easy to convince and trivial to make obsequious.
That is not what a therapist does. There’s a reason they spend thousands of hours in training; that is not an exaggeration.
Humans are complex. An LLM cannot parse that level of complexity.
The tools and reframing that LLMs have given me (Gemini 3.0/3.1 Pro) have been extremely effective and have genuinely improved my life. These things don't even cross the threshold to be worth the effort to find and speak to an actual therapist.
An LLM cannot parse the complexity of your situation. Period. It is literally incapable of doing that, because it does not have any idea what it is like to be human.
Therapy is not an objective science; it is, in many ways, subjective, and the therapeutic relationship is by far the most important part.
I am not saying LLMs are not useful for helping people parse their emotions or understand themselves better. But that is not therapy, in the same way that using an app built for CBT is not, in and of itself, therapy. It is one tool in a therapist’s toolbox, and will not be the right tool for all patients.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful.
But an LLM is not a therapist. The fact that you can trivially convince it to believe things that are absolutely untrue is precisely why, for one simple example.
Training LLMs we can do.
Though it might be important for the patient to believe that the therapist is empathizing, so that may give AI therapy an inherent disadvantage (depending on the patient's view of AI).
The word “just” is not in my comment anywhere. Being human is necessary, but not sufficient.
And no, you cannot train an LLM to be human.
An LLM is not a therapist. Please do not confuse the two.
You cannot train an LLM on how to be human.
Do you think I could use an AI therapist to become a more effective and much improved serial killer?
EDIT: seems like you made the same point in a child comment.
But he still sees a therapist, regularly, because they are not the same and do not serve the same purpose. :)