AI is not an end to Software Engineers

For those who are young, or not as well read in their history, the current claims of Artificial Intelligence enthusiasts that the field of software engineering is dead, and that we won’t need programmers within the decade can be quite alarming. Peace my brethren, this claim is not so novel. In fact, I think we can say of our field, that “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”.

There are three previous times that particularly stand out to me:

• In 2021 by low code enthusiasts — predictions said that the majority of all programming would be via low code by 2024. I guess they where off by a bit.

• In 2019 by quantum computer enthusiasts — quantum computers will be so fast, so efficient, and so readily available that we won’t care how inefficiently programs are implemented, and all current techniques will be discard in the dustbin of history.

• By AI enthusiasts — the first time around, in the 1960s, before the AI winter. Though that time they claimed that programming by hand was too hard for the human mind, and we had to replace it with AI.

Those three where all times that serious people, looking seriously at the field, might have, or did, doubt its viability beyond the coming decade. However software engineering is still here, and things like craftsmanship, experience, efficiency and communication still matter.

Maybe our trade will go the way of the buggy whip maker, but not for awhile yet.