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Saeed Ahmad
Saeed Ahmad

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Hey DEVs! How 🧠 AI is going to disrupt our lives as a coder?

There has been a lot of discussion around that AI will create mass unemployment and all the jobs that aren't that much creative or something like that will be replaced by robots and machines by the virtue of AI and automation.

What's your take on this as a programmer?

Are we going to lose our jobs or we are to remain here?

πŸ‘‡ Share your opinions in the comments below!

Top comments (13)

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mrsaeeddev profile image
Saeed Ahmad

I think that AI is not gonna take any jobs. Instead, it will help us by making our lives easier and safer. However, we as human beings generally and AI practitioners particularly need to make sure that it's used for good purposes.

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joeneville_ profile image
Joe Neville

I'm coming at this from a different angle because I work in networking. Automation is a really hot topic. Previously a lot of device config changes were performed manually on the CLI, now networks are increasingly being managed & configured in software or cloud-based platforms. Now it isn't the device CLI that engineers need to know, it is how to interacted with an API, and networkers do not know that. Coding and JSON, these things are not in their skill set.
What does that mean for programmers? Actually, more opportunity. Networking jobs are being posted for people with coding skills, not networking knowledge, and that's just in my industry.
In broader terms, automation is technological progress, taking manual tasks and building machines or code to run them instead. It is happening all around us, it is societal change. Think about when you visit a store now and you use the self-checkout. Twenty years ago, I had to type in the price of an item and do stock checks. Now you are doing all of that yourself when you use one of those machines, and where are all the people working the checkout points? They aren't needed. Lots of low to medium skilled jobs are or will be affected in this way.
That doesn't necessarily mean mass unemployment, just different opportunities, but this will be harder on some.
The key is to keep moving and keep learning, if you can. Programmers have an advantage here, many others in society either do not know this, or they lack the opportunity to learn, facing constraints because of socio-economic pressures. It is not so easy for the single mother that's just lost her part-time job at the supermarket to "learn to code". It is on us to ensure that everyone benefits from the developments of AI and automation, not just the privileged few.

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mrsaeeddev profile image
Saeed Ahmad

Yes exactly. Learning is the key.

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shaijut profile image
Shaiju T • Edited

Learn it to survive. πŸ˜„

AI is also done using Programming. I think There will be demand for AI Engineers. So in future maybe we will have to learn AI to survive.

Someone created robots and automation. So if you learn how to create or add features to it, you can survive, same applies to AI.

Someone will create something , and you need to learn it to survive.

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mrsaeeddev profile image
Saeed Ahmad

Couldn't agree more!

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nombrekeff profile image
Keff

I think AI could disrupt our lives, not meaning they will. If in the hands of the wrong people with the wrong interests.

I also don't think decent jobs will be replaced by it. I think it will replace humans in positions where humans are not that effective or in degrading jobs like production chains and so forth. Yeah, it will be a bummer, but do you really want to be working 12h a day doing the same repetitive task?

Humans like interacting with humans most times. Just take, for instance, when you call your mobile provider, most times, you have to talk to a shitty AI/chatbot that nobody enjoys. So jobs, where humans are valued, will not be replaced by AI IMHO.

Although this has been an ongoing discussion for a long time, and quite a complex topic.

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mrsaeeddev profile image
Saeed Ahmad

Yeah, it's complex.

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rfaulhaber profile image
Ryan Faulhaber

I've said this elsewhere but while I think most investment in AI is with the intention of automating as many jobs as possible, I'm not particularly worried about the AI future that so many others seem to be. Historically the thing that drives adoption of automation is whether or not it's cheaper to replace a person (or only some part of the workforce) with a machine. I think in the case of developers AI will be used to make developers more efficient and therefore justify reducing their pay overall (...which is maybe the only aspect of AI I actually am worried about!).

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mrsaeeddev profile image
Saeed Ahmad

Good point! (I am worried about pay factor because I am a software engineer too), But I think that it will also open up new opportunities for people. Maybe we are maintaining those AI systems that are writing efficient code, who knows!

Still, I think creative work can't be replaced by automation or anything.

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maureento8888 profile image
Maureen T'O

Hmm I’ve heard that there’s a company that built an AI model that can write Python code πŸ€” Not sure the use of it yet, but I see AI as a tool rather than something that replaces certain jobs

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delta456 profile image
Swastik Baranwal

I doubt its gonna disrupt our lives!

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mrsaeeddev profile image
Saeed Ahmad

It's going to but the question's how the disruption would be?

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mrsaeeddev profile image
Saeed Ahmad

Yeah, Edison! I hope it's good for all of us.