“Beginning of the End” for Programmers
 

The future of software development is undergoing a fundamental shift. Mark Zuckerberg has made a bold statement: in 2025, Meta will extensively utilize artificial intelligence (AI) for coding, significantly reducing the role of human programmers.

This announcement aligns with a growing trend in Silicon Valley, where major technology companies are increasingly considering replacing human developers with AI-driven solutions.

If AI can now function as a “mid-level engineer”, as Zuckerberg claims, are we approaching an era where coding becomes an algorithmic task rather than a human skill?

2025: A Turning Point for the Tech Industry
The transition toward AI-driven development is already underway, and 2025 could mark a significant milestone. This trend appears irreversible, shifting the discussion from if AI will reshape the industry to how companies and developers will adapt to these changes.

Are we witnessing the gradual disappearance of human programmers, or are we entering an era where software engineers work alongside AI, guiding its development and ensuring its reliability? The future of work is being rewritten—one line of code at a time.

Damn... what happened to "learn to code"

It's more than a few pennies.

this :2cents

And we'll quickly get to the point where AI double checks itself. It's not nearly as complicated as people here (cough, blackmonsters, cough) make it sound.

We're actually creating a new problem though. Junior developers aren't going to learn the same way senior devs did and AI is going to lead to over-reliance on AI IMO. Right now, after a certain point the code base gets too complex for most models context windows and they start forgetting shit or hallucinating functions.

1+ year ago when I was working on my "tube killer" porn media engine website, the AI would start fucking up at about 250-300 lines of code. 100 and under the AI rocked... 100+ started getting dicey, 150+ you're on a prayer, 200+ you definitely need to re-prompt it for all of the functions and such you need with a huge prompt so it remembers what the entire code is supposed to do...

I am using the free ChatGPT right now to code something for my uploads, and it seems to be better than a year ago, but not much, it still requires big prompt reminders or it hallucinates like you mentioned and does weird shit. Maybe the paid version is better than this free one now, because last year I was using paid version.

That's not the way anymore. Claude has projects and can help you build complex apps. The one I'm currently working on has 18 files, the largest being 756 lines. I've nearly eliminated the timeouts with smarter planning and keepings the chats as small as possible. And when I do get timed out, I upload the files to an identical 2nd account and most of the time I can simply keep going, although not in every case... sometimes I have to wait it out but that is getting more rare. Cost me an extra $20 but so what it's probably the best $40/monthly total that I've ever spent.

Watch your inbox here for a dm from me in a few minutes.

You chumps actually know how to debug code or just do one of those "chat, build me a tgp script"?

Am I the only one where ChatGPT keeps putting emoji's in the code even after having asked it dozens of times to stop? :)
WG

Are you assuming that it wont get better? I'm assuming that the developers know that this issue is a pain point and it gets better. Will probably also get more expensive. I know right now I'd gladly pay more to get past the timeouts without having to get creative with workarounds.

You're smarter than the average user but when I was just starting out I got rid of all of the hiccups by breaking scripts down into multiple parts and running them sequentially so I could debug every single piece without affecting the rest. Then I asked it to combine them and it did it fine for the most.

"Make a script that takes this data and formats it like this, saves it in a folder names xxx and gives me a results.txt with how many were processed."

Then "I have a script that uses x data and gives me output files that look like _________. Make a script that will process every file in that folder, use the data to populate a csv for Wordpress imports and pull all images from folder y. They are named the same as z line for each item in the output file."

And on and on.

People sleeping on this still with so many telling them to not is mind blowing to me.

Some recent update they went to emoji friendly as a choice. Imagine my surprise when a successful run of a python script gave me "18,000 files have been processed!" with dollar signs and rocket emojis across the screen. :1orglaugh

I was thinking about this yesterday, I think I'd pay up to $1500 a month right now if they'd just leave me alone. Maybe we should just host it at home?

For those of you that care about this sort of thing, Claude just released Sonnet 3.7 - Been playing with it using Roo Code and wow - Seriously fucking cool!..

Hard to believe this was a choice to put emoji's all over the code, lol.
WG

Someone posted a prompt that stops it but maybe it went haywire and posted more than required.

https://community.openai.com/t/exces...ions/1112668/2

You still have to know code to prompt code ??

2nd account is such a great tip and clever workaround

When it works, it's great. But sometimes you get timed out in the middle of something that is difficult to try to start in a new chat. That's when I just do something else for a bit.

Yeah but you can ask the AI to explain the code to you... Best part is, you can ask it to explain it to you like you're a drunk retard, and it will go slow and even provide you examples in booze-speak.

Describe, in terms an alcoholic would understand, how Ruby stores a variable and retrieves it when it is called for a function. How does the code work?

ChatGPT said:
Alright, let’s break it down in terms of drinking.

Storing a Variable in Ruby = Pouring a Drink
Think of a variable in Ruby like a glass at the bar. When you assign a value to it, it's like pouring a drink into that glass.

Example:

ruby
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whiskey = "Jameson"
Here, you have a glass called whiskey, and you just poured "Jameson" into it.

Retrieving the Variable = Taking a Sip
When you call the variable later, Ruby acts like a bartender remembering your order. It grabs the same glass and gives you what’s inside.

Example:

ruby
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puts whiskey
This is like saying, "Hey bartender, what’s in my whiskey glass?" And the bartender (Ruby) replies:

Jameson

How Functions Use Variables = Mixing a Cocktail
Now, let's say you want to mix a drink (use a function). You don’t want just straight Jameson—you want an Old Fashioned.

Example function:

ruby
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def make_old_fashioned(base_whiskey)
"#{base_whiskey} + bitters + sugar + orange peel"
end
This function takes in a variable (a bottle of whiskey), adds ingredients, and returns a cocktail.

Now, let’s call the function using our whiskey variable:

ruby
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puts make_old_fashioned(whiskey)
Ruby sees the whiskey variable, grabs "Jameson" from it, and the function makes:

Jameson + bitters + sugar + orange peel

This is like asking the bartender, “Make me an Old Fashioned with my Jameson.”

How Ruby Actually Works Behind the Scenes
Assigning a variable:
Ruby creates a label (like a drink order) that points to a value in memory (the bottle on the shelf).
Calling a variable:
Ruby looks up that label and grabs the value from memory (pours your drink).
Passing a variable to a function:
Ruby hands the bartender the bottle and says, "Use this in the recipe."
Returning a result:
The function mixes the drink and hands it back.
Key Takeaways (For an Alcoholic Mindset)
Variables are like glasses at a bar—they hold something until you drink (use) them.
Functions are like bartenders—they take your ingredients, mix them, and give you back something new.
Ruby memory is the liquor shelf—it stores bottles (values) and retrieves them when needed.
So next time you're coding in Ruby, just think of yourself as a drunk bartender managing drinks efficiently. 🍻

Yeah, its annoying as all fuck.

The answer is no. It helps but I couldn't code hello world.

Could that depend on how we define programmers?
Programmers have used many tools like Codeigniter, Cakephp, etc...

Would it be the end of programmers or would it create new programmers who programmed using AI tools?

Will you use AI to eliminate the programmer, or will you just become the programmer yourself using AI?

:)

Well I know what I'm doing, the question is what are YOU doing? And your smug :) is hilarious since the last time I posted you didn't even know AI could be used to crank out websites.

So did you decide that your stubbornness has 0 impact on reality yet?

Enough said.

:helpme

All these years and you are still in the running for the dumbest mofo to ever post on GFY. Literally incapable of taking in new information.

PS, my no coding ass has put out more functional shit this year than you have in your lifetime.

Enough said. :helpme

Yo mamma!

:1orglaugh

using the prompt:

'write me a piece of code that fetches the html content from gfy.com and grabs all the image links and just print out the urls to those images"

results:

Fetching Image Links from Gfy.com

Requirement Summary

The task is to create a Python script that fetches the HTML content from the website gfy.com, extracts all image links, and prints out the URLs of those images.

This can be accomplished using various libraries in Python, such as requests for fetching the content and BeautifulSoup for parsing the HTML.

Using Requests and BeautifulSoup

My mamma is a better dev than you. :thumbsup

I know; because she gives me coding advice while expressing her regret of your birth.

:1orglaugh

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

You two are serious huh?

JFC the industry has fallen.

Don't take it personally man, c'mon, lighten up!

:1orglaugh

I'm using grok for front-end stuff now. I like it.

I don't see a world where I'd use it for backend work. Issues:

--if the task is small, it'll always be faster to just do it myself vs engineer the right prompt
--if the task isn't self-contained, its too difficult to engineer the right prompt. The AI doesn't know how my systems work and explaining it is not realistic. Will someday it be realistic to just give it access to my whole codebase and it can figure things out on its own? Maybe. Idk.
--If the task is complicated, the AI will inevitably design its solution in a way that isn't how I would want it to be done.

AI is absolutely revolutionary for non-coders who want to build an app or website. If you're good at coding you're inevitably going to be very particular about how you want things done, you're gonna struggle to engineer the right prompt to get things done the way you want them done, and you're gonna revert to doing things by hand.

20 years from now it wouldn't surprise me if there's a job market for programmers who learned to code pre-AI in the same way there's a job market for Cobol programmers today. over-reliance on AI will lead to a shortage of truly skilled programmers and companies will realize they want to have a few humans around who actually have deep understanding of the systems and technologies being utilized, vs just being skilled at prompt engineering.

I feel like the ever evolving AI, that can study every programming language, how they interact and include every single previously made script and discussion of best practices, will negate your last point.

My friend uses current iterations to write the code to allow new networking equipment with ancient equipment to either bypass the amount Cisco charges or to work with system they don't even have documentation for. This is simple code in comparison but it's also not something that is as easy to figure out as integrating websites. For example, Claude seems to know virtually the entire Shopify codebase and researches the apps to the point it can answer about those as well.

Surfing the AI is now more fun than surfing the web, for sure!

I use Cursor AI, along with claude 3.7-sonnet and it's becoming more reliable than any human coder I've ever hired. I don't need to go down rabbit holes of generating good prompts, I just tell it what I want as I would any other human, and it generates great results the vast majority of the time. It does make mistakes here and there, but it's easy to resolve those.

The main issue I have atm relates to the AI sometimes wanting to put code into the wrong files, or create new files altogether, but it's easy to workaround it by specifying the file location it should be working in when that happens; so not a huge deal.

That being said, while I think AI will some day completely replace the need for human coders, I think we're a long way away from that. I think skilled human coders are still necessary in order to verify the code being generated, debug, troubleshoot, correct errors, check/test efficiency etc.

stop being a bitch

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

For the most part, AI code is not .. production ready on any "large" project.

Context is a problem, but that will improve.
Human intervention is still very much needed.

That said, I have changed my development style to play nice with AI, 100% component based, event driven design when and where I can. This allows me to use AI with limited context windows and experience a lot less pain, while accomplishing much more. 60 lines of code, across a model, and controller is much easier for it to digest

GPT is retarded since they added the icons, so Ive been using Claude and Deepseek ( prolly the best honestly when the fuckin server will load )

Coding has once again evolved.. its not dead.

so far, god mode has been enabled - a single dev can replace a team for sure, so I see what Zuck was saying.

On a large scale like Meta that sounds bad, but for an independent dev, its a HUGE advantage.

I'd have to talk to you in depth to see what you mean by production ready, since our last convo I've met others doing some very insane things with it off of these forums. I did completely adjust how I approach things when developing and this might be where the differing ideas of ready originate.

For a non coding moron it's a Godsend. :1orglaugh

Interesting takeaways. As in any industry, experts will always be wanted, and people will be willing to pay top dollar for their work. AI helps, but I would never rely only on AI if I needed a developer. If he wants to use it, fine, but if the idea is that people who know nothing about coding should do it all by themselves with the help of AI, I cannot see it as a realistic option.

Everyone I talk to NOT using AI says the same but in most cases something just hasn't clicked yet. I am more productive, efficient, faster and get better results with AI as a non coder than I have ever received from all but 2 developers over 20+ years. I would say their results were equal (worse if we talk about how user friendly they are), not better. So now erase $100,000 from the cost and I'll go with AI every time.

Can I imagine a project where AI might be a pain? Sure, but 99% of what people would want to develop is fully covered with the right approach.

The same can be said for most hand developed websites, no website, script, etc is production ready at the outset, everything needs to be tweaked and adjusted.

If you spend the time making sure to provide the correct prompts and make sure things work as you go forward, getting a script, logo design or web html code production ready, still takes less time than working with a designer or developer, at almost zero cost other than time :2 cents:

You can't just tell AI to 'code this' and expect something ready to run, no more than if I told you 'build me a website' and expect you to pump out exactly what i want and it be 'production ready' :1orglaugh

Yup, this might be where the problem and/or solution lies. We'll see what happens in the next few years.

I'm still learning how to use AI to write scripts. I sometimes feel like AI knows what I'm trying to accomplish, but pretends it doesn't know unless I spell it out 'exactly', kind of like talking to that guy in high school who pretended not to know what you were talking about and forced you to be super specific, and forced you to eliminate his arguments beforehand until he had no choice but to give you an answer. It's like AI knows you want to profit somehow and doesn't want to help you.

That's just the feeling I get. I have gotten scripts from it but again, being new, I have little idea what people are doing with them. That's where I'm still blind and trying to "see".

That's the same as if you hired a developer to write you a script, they need to know exactly what you need in order to deliver a working product.

The only difference is, you're writing a prompt instead of a set of features.

Yeah for sure. I guess I meant that I feel a bit of attitude, or resistance, or game playing going on. It's not so much specificity (which is absolutely crucial with developing anything) as it is some kind of morality that the developers built into the AI, to make it act a certain way or resist certain asks.