@elonmusk: This is exactly right. Source code is on the verge of becoming like assembly. The next step is getting rid of “source c…
Summary
Elon Musk agrees that source code is becoming like assembly language, predicting that AI will soon generate efficient binaries directly, eliminating the need for source code.
View Cached Full Text
Cached at: 08/03/26, 05:47 PM
This is exactly right. Source code is on the verge of becoming like assembly.
The next step is getting rid of “source code” entirely and just making an efficient binary directly with AI.
jimmah (@jamesdouma): I might never look the source again. It was nearly a half century ago that I stopped looking at assembly because I trusted the compiler to get it right. This feels like that.
Similar Articles
Programming will (probably) die – Musk is convinced, and I think I'm starting to believe it too.
Discusses Elon Musk's claim that programming will eventually die as AI generates binaries directly from text descriptions, comparing source code to assembly and reflecting on verification and abstraction challenges.
@elonmusk: Humans writing code as seen by future AI
Elon Musk shares his view that future AI will look back at humans writing code, suggesting a shift in AI's role in development.
@PalmerLuckey: Everyone who thinks AI slop will ruin code efficiency/performance is going to be so surprised when everything is absurd…
Palmer Luckey predicts that AI-generated code will be surprisingly well-optimized, resembling John Carmack-style machine code, countering fears of inefficiency.
The End of Programming
Paul Dix argues that manual code writing is becoming obsolete due to AI, exemplified by the Bun rewrite using AI agents, suggesting a future where most software is created by AI with minimal human code review.
"Huge implications - binaries are now basically editable code"
GPT has saturated ValsAI's SRE benchmark, which tests whether AI models can reverse engineer software from binaries, suggesting advanced decompilation capabilities that effectively make compiled code editable.