I don't really agree with this. I was VERY skeptical about AI, but then I started using frontier models everyday, and my feelings have changed dramatically. I use AI to refine designs. I use AI for "where are all the codepaths where we return an HTTP 499 error". I use AI to write code (in "manually accept edits" mode, and I am picky about every single diff) and the results are really good. Most of the time, exactly what I typed in. Doing stuff like "add this config and plumb it through the helm chart" is amazing. Editing Go templates that generate YAML is absolutely miserable, it is my least favorite task. Claude gets it right without fuss every time.

I have not stopped engineering software, but I type in less code. I still understand every line in our codebase and why it's there, but I spend a lot less time dealing with the mechanics. LLMs are super impressive for the software engineering work I do. I don't have a fleet of agents making 20 major changes to the codebase every day. I do about as much work with AI as I did before I used AI. But I think the quality has gone way up, and I am a stickler for pretty perfect code. Claude keeps me honest and reduces the cost of exploring alternate approaches, writing hairy tests, doing refactors, keeping docs up to date, keeping production stable and understandable, etc.

I basically do not agree with this article at all. Frontier models are like switching from dabbrev-mode to IntelliSense, something I was very resistant to at the time. "It's important that I know the APIs that I use everyday." Not really. Having your IDE remember whether it's HasPrefix(string, substring) or HasPrefix(substring, string) frees up my brain for something more important and I couldn't live without it. AI is the same way. It's a tool that makes me better at my work. Yes, it's expensive. That's the only downside I see. I am lucky that I can use as much Fable 5 as I want at work... I always feel bad when I share something that it did that was cool with someone who can't afford it. But costs will come down. I think this AI think is here to stay in the software engineering space. I don't think it removes the need for qualified software engineers at the controls. At least today.