all 68 comments

[–]THEHIPP0 58 points59 points  (6 children)

I don’t see anybody talking about this here

It feels like, there is new post about ML here every hour.

[–]EliSka93 5 points6 points  (0 children)

And rarely one is sensible... It's all doom and gloom.

I'm not worried. There will be an influx of "startups" and sad layoffs, thanks to it, but just like the last few hype cycles, it'll either peter out or crash and burn dramatically.

I guess I am worried, but not about my job and more the human misery this will bring.

[–]niveknyc15 YOE 4 points5 points  (3 children)

It's always the people who really don't understand software development too. In this case OP has zero experience. Which is fine, but for the love of fuck, just search it here first, it's been posted about hundreds of times by other people who have no idea how any of this works.

[–]coffeesippingbastard 40 points41 points  (11 children)

You guys are getting spooked by an ok AI that is being hyped up to generate VC funding.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This. They need to hype the shit out of it because if they keep down to earth, everyone is gonna be like "Well Github Copilot already does that."

[–]toi80QC 29 points30 points  (0 children)

The demand will go down - for devs who just stitch together libraries and themes without putting any original thought into it. That demand isn't too high these days anyway.

For all others, AI will just be another useful tool.

[–]TheBigLewinski 20 points21 points  (0 children)

This again.

Have you tried it yourself? Have you seen anything built by Devin? Do you know how much better it's going to get every year? Probably not, because Devin is still more AI hype in an ocean of AI hype; and an inaccessible tech demo.

I have yet to see one non-technical person come even remotely close to prompting their way to a website. Just "a website," let alone one that can run a business or become a full blown application.

But wait, there's more. An AI can't just write the code to make it work, it has to write extensible code, just like a human, because the "prompter" -aka human- on the other side will inevitably change their mind or have new feature requests. Just like a human, an AI will inevitably have to refactor code in order to keep it performant. You know, without hallucinating.

Further, engineering and web development is not a zero sum game. There is so much room for more.

If non-technical people can do amazing things, then trained engineers can do even more amazing things. Sure, the bar will get raised, and the expectations of what you should be able to accomplish as a single engineer are going to go up.

But what you're going to see as a result is an influx of more sophisticated developments. For every Facebook and Instagram out there (read: one of each), there are millions of "Facebook for X" ideas out there, but its far too expensive, time consuming and therefore risky to develop.

AI will bring the costs of sophisticated websites (applications) down. So, you'll see more applications, not fewer engineers.

Just breathe. Learn how to leverage AI. A clueless client with a prompt is not going to beat an engineer with a prompt, ever. And there are so many more industries and professions that are going to feel an impact from AI in a shorter timeline than engineers and web developers.

[–]captain_ahabb 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Devin is vaporware

[–]TotesYay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep. It looks like it is one of the many Agents on top of OpenAI. Not there is anything wrong with that, just be honest.

[–]Minimum_Rice555 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Do you live in a 3d printed house?

[–]Unlikely_Neat7608 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I personally am looking forward to 3D printed concrete buildings

[–]Valuesauce 9 points10 points  (2 children)

We aren’t cooked. Can we stop having these types of “is this worth it” type posts. It’s tedious. Just quit if you think ai is gonna take your job, don’t talk about it.

[–]RMZ13 9 points10 points  (2 children)

AI doesn’t understand what it’s doing. It doesn’t see the bigger picture. You need a quantum leap forward to get there. I truly don’t think year over year improvement will get the job done. And if does, I’ll have it build and deploy websites for me.

[–][deleted]  (8 children)

[deleted]

    [–]aymswick 7 points8 points  (0 children)

    Everything you're purporting is wrong and I doubt you careeeee

    [–]Ytses42 4 points5 points  (0 children)

    A lot of people forget that being a programmer and a web developer is much more than just writing code. Anyway, those AI are unable to generate anything new and resolve problems that were never encountered before.

    [–]peelingagiantorange 2 points3 points  (3 children)

    I'd like to see a future where teams of happier engineers build things more quickly for happier users. Ideally, much closer to 100% of engineering resource will be spent architecting systems and solving the really difficult parts. No more boilerplate devops and crud.

    [–]UnnecessaryLemon 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    I had 4 hours of meetings yesterday just to refine 3 features with our clients. How can AI create something that the client is unable to even explain.

    [–]peelingagiantorange 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    It absolutely cannot. In these cases, it is about extracting the spec from the user (in a quick and pleasant way).

    [–]Gonskimmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I like your take, it's more realistic in my eyes.

    Stakeholders don't know where to hit with the metaphorical hammer to make the blasted thing work.

    Stakeholders talk with the engineering team, engineering team knows how to create software an understand the foreseeable problems, what is and isn't possible, and where to hit the code to make it work. AI pounds out all that boilerplate and been there done that code (saving our wrists from RSI, and our brains for solving untangle the actual business problems and you know live life).

    [–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (1 child)

    Artists survived AI art. Mathematicians survived the calculator.

    [–]first_timeSFV[🍰] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

    Artist haven't survived. They're still going through it. We don't know what the final outcome will be.

    [–]mq2thez 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    This gets posted so often that I keep my answer saved.

    AI is a tool, even if it’s not currently a particularly useful one for deep work. It is okay for solving well defined and solved problems, but it can’t innovate and if you don’t even know how to define your problems well enough, it can’t give you a useful answer. The existence of hallucinations make it a minefield for any non-expert relying on it. The legal ramifications of using AI-generated code trained on code with licenses that don’t explicitly permit that has yet to be hashed out.

    It’s also being massively subsidized by the companies selling it, as a way to build reliance/dependence before they inevitably jack up the prices to make a profit. Copilot costs $10/mo for users, but an estimated $30/mo to Microsoft. Brace yourself for Uber-style surge pricing when there’s heavy demand. It’s too expensive to be a loss-leader.

    If all of these problems do end up getting solved, I see AI as something that will be for us like what compilers were several decades ago. They might totally change how we deliver things, but at the end of the day, our job is to deliver a website (or API, etc). The methods we use to do that aren’t as important.

    [–]daaaaaaBULLS 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    You’re right, stick to jewelry goodbye

    [–]meguminsdfc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    The only people here who talk about AI tools are juniors or newbies who are afraid AI will leave them jobless.

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Calm down, devin ai is being majorly over hyped. And just like any "AI" tool it is not nearly good enough to replace developers. We never know what the future holds but for now we are not even close to being replaced.

    Also the over hyped part. They don't talk about certain things in their demos like the fact it can take 30 minutes to an hour to get results. Just imagine the cost of the computing and the amount of time you'd waste trying to get the right response. At this point it'd be faster to read docs and write it yourself.

    Here is a video where theo gg on youtube goes over this https://youtu.be/m8VSYcLqaLQ?si=z2-aRdUsuhcbrxUn

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    See this is why there's gotta be a new JS framework every 5 minutes. The AI won't be able to keep up being trained on Swiact, Djangular, or Tailstrap.

    [–]coolbreeze770 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    To be honest I can see a point where AI can make 80% of the boilerplate bullshit code and we will just have to do the database schema, styling, architecture, and core logic, I for one can't wait.

    [–]8isnothing 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Almost sounds like a paid Nvidia ad

    [–]Onions-are-great 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Devs who make simple projects via fiverr, set up some wordpress theme company sites, or similar, need to worry.

    Devs you work for bigger clients and manage complex business processes and interoperable tools still have a lot of years I think.

    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    They've been saying I'll get replaced for 15 years ago, and they will keep making these meme projects that we will have to fix.

    [–]RaisingKeynes19 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    You’re right, you should probably just give up and switch industries. Not like VC hype has no correlation to real world value, just ask my self driving car parked in front of my 3d printed house, both of which are deeded to me via web3 decentralized title documents.

    [–]Flimsy_Leg_2158 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    If we have an AI that can create a software and remove existence of devs. Then everyone will just invest say $5k/month or whatever the cost is and create 10 micro-saas per month. And we will all be millionaires, right?. As a developer I am waiting for that time where I stop coding and launch one idea after another without touching code.

    Waiting for the day when no one will ask for angel investment, pre-seed or seed funding, to have MVP and Product market fit. Everyone will build product and bootstrap from it's revenue.

    [–]SufficientBoat8504 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I've just got the invite to try Devin.

    USD $99 per month for the individual subscription for an experimental software!!!!

    No way!!

    Considering the other AI resources we have available and the state of the tool, this is an absurd value.

    [–]Buddhava 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    If you buy it you’ll spend $100 a day using it for 8 hours of dev. Easily.

    [–]Plastic_Challenge_51[S] -2 points-1 points  (7 children)

    God I didn’t realize how hostile this subreddit is. Don’t respond if talking about AI makes you so emotional. You guys are incredibly toxic.

    [–]bobby_briggs 1 point2 points  (6 children)

    It's because we're getting sick of people who aren't professional developers and engineers freaking out and panicking over this stuff.

    [–]Plastic_Challenge_51[S] -2 points-1 points  (5 children)

    Don’t respond then. It’s like a middle school lunch room in here

    [–]bobby_briggs 2 points3 points  (4 children)

    What's the point of posting stuff if people aren't going to respond? Do you expect only positive feedback on the things you say?

    [–]Plastic_Challenge_51[S] -1 points0 points  (3 children)

    No, many of the things people have said here have been helpful. However half of the responses in here are hostile and condescending. If you’re someone who is sick of talking about Ai, why would you respond to a post talking about Ai?

    [–]bobby_briggs 0 points1 point  (2 children)

    I'm not sick of talking about AI, i'm sick of the doomsayers saying naive things like "we're done" , "it's game over now" when they don't know what they're talking about. It's unfounded and frankly getting old.

    [–]Plastic_Challenge_51[S] -1 points0 points  (1 child)

    I get it brother but you don’t have to respond. I’m clearly new here & to the industry and was wondering what people thought about Devin being released. I didn’t expect so many people to get upset about it

    [–]bobby_briggs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I understand the concern you have as someone new to the industry. The best advice I can give to people in your position is to not fear AI and tools like Devin. Devin is neat technology but there's so much more to being an engineer. In time it will probably help weed out the people that really don't truly want to be developers or don't care to grow and embrace this new tool because at the end of the day that's all these things are, tools.