this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
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What are devs displaced by AI going to do in the future? Is there an actual plan? (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 days ago by DuckWrangler9000@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Let's assume that in 10 years, AI has advanced absurdly, insanely fast, and is now capable of doing everything a Senior SWE can do. It can program in 15 different languages, 95% accuracy with almost no mistakes, can create entire applications in minutes, and no more engineers or SWEs are needed.... What will all the devs do? Do they just become homeless? Transition to medical field, nursing? Become tradespeople like plumbers, HVAC?

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[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Well if it can replace senior software engineers... Wouldn't it also be able to do almost all of the other jobs? Or are you referring to some specific future where AI advances massively, but robotics does not and handymen are still safe?

I'd say if all humans are unemployed, society would change massively. We can't really tell how that'd work. But if machines / AI do all jobs, get food on the table... I don't really know what other people would be doing. I think I'd relax and pursue a few hobbies and interests. Or it'd be some dystopia where humankind is oppressed by the machines and I'd fight for the resistance.

But regardless... In a world like that, money wouldn't work the way it does now. Neither would salaries for labor mean anything.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah. In this wild scenario, only the people who can crack the robots security protocols, and reprogram them, will have any influence over society.

I promise to be a benevolent ruler.

Except Michael Bay will have to return to making Transformers movies full time. Sorry about that, in advance.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Or the people who own the robots and dictate their programming (/control them). That would be my concern. Unless they're sentient and make decisions completely on their own, they can be used to oppress people to other people's wishes. As it's the case with all (modern) technology. And currently AI isn't shaped by the people, but by a rich minority and big tech companies. And I see some issues with that, specifically, in the near future.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Agreed on all points.

That said, I am smarter than the asshole CEOs, and the current state of computer security is abysmal.

So there's still some hope that we are barreling toward my (mostly) benevolent reign over endless Michael Bay blockbuster summers.

Hopefully, for everyone's sake, reality will fall somewhere in between.

But joking aside, money isn't the only form of power. There aren't that many billionaires (compared to he rest of us) and a billionaire's influence is limited by what the rest of us will or won't do.