Many tech workers are starting to worry that artificial intelligence might be taking away their jobs. Last year, ChatGPT made news headlines and employees flocked to Blind, an anonymous network, to question if their jobs would be made obsolete by AI. On Blind, users need to verify their employee email addresses and in the forum, software engineers wrote many posts about the controversy, including polls about when AI would replace them and whether the “golden age” had come to an end.
One Microsoft engineer wrote in Blind that “software engineering is a dying profession”, prompting hundreds of replies, either agreeing or claiming that the profession is just fine. Another user, who set up a survey on Blind asking if young software engineers were doomed, resulted in over twelve thousand votes with 41.3% of them saying yes, 37% saying nothing has changed, and others saying there are now more opportunities.
However, AI advancements such as ChatGPT have already started to risk the job security of software developers. Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque even declared that “no programmers in five years”. Meanwhile, other tech firms are still betting big on the future of AI, OpenAI already teaching its AI to do software engineering.
At the same time, tech workers have been hit by major layoffs and are concerned if their salaries are going to stay. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon employees have expressed their anxiety and dread of where their skillsets are heading in the future and some even want to start their careers from the ground up.
Even though some Blind forum users were pessimistic about the future, others were optimistic about how AI can be beneficial for software engineers. One Shopify employee said the AI “doom and gloom” was similar to the reaction to Web3, 5G, and blockchain and another thought most companies will not be advanced enough to even adopt this technology.
Semantic is a technology company dedicated to accelerating the world’s transition to a machine-readable web. Semantic’s mission is to enable machines to read more software faster and more accurately by automating the software engineering process. Led by CEO Emad Mostaque, Semantic’s team of engineers, developers, and researchers believe that by reducing manual labor and harnessing the power of AI, they can create a more efficient web.
