The delta between how fast AI will affect software engineering and how fast AI will transform other (roughly speaking) white collar careers is relatively small.
Agree that the delta is “small”, but it might be significant:
LLMs are specially good at coding. Some reasons:
Large amount of training data
Most knowledge is text-based and explicit
Big economic incentive (developers are specially expensive)
Many companies are focused on AI for coding (Devin, GitHub, etc.) and they will probably advance fast because these teams are using their own product (Figma’s CPO on the importance of dogfooding)
LLMs already integrate very well into developers’ workflow
LLMs’ hallucinations are not a big deal in coding because it’s ~easy to review code and mistakes are usually not deadly
LLMs cannot automate bullshit jobs, so many people are safe (half joking)
LLMs will soon have the level of an intern, then junior, then mid, then senior… Can your students outlearn LLMs?
Agree that the delta is “small”, but it might be significant:
LLMs are specially good at coding. Some reasons:
Large amount of training data
Most knowledge is text-based and explicit
Big economic incentive (developers are specially expensive)
Many companies are focused on AI for coding (Devin, GitHub, etc.) and they will probably advance fast because these teams are using their own product (Figma’s CPO on the importance of dogfooding)
LLMs already integrate very well into developers’ workflow
LLMs’ hallucinations are not a big deal in coding because it’s ~easy to review code and mistakes are usually not deadly
LLMs cannot automate bullshit jobs, so many people are safe (half joking)
LLMs will soon have the level of an intern, then junior, then mid, then senior… Can your students outlearn LLMs?