@levie: The elimination of engineers was one of the wilder hypotheses out there. Just like absurdly wrong. We just gave enginee…
Summary
In response to claims that AI eliminates engineers, @levie argues that AI is a power tool that increases engineering value and demand, as companies take on more complex work. He asserts that experts benefit most from AI, making it a great time to be an expert.
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Cached at: 08/14/26, 05:34 AM
The elimination of engineers was one of the wilder hypotheses out there. Just like absurdly wrong. We just gave engineers a power tool that can accelerate the development of whatever we want.
Of course their value not only remains critical in that world, but actually goes up in many domains because we can apply engineering to far more work than before.
If you’re trying to automate drug discovery, you need engineers. If you’re trying to automate manufacturing, you need engineers. If you’re taking on larger and larger software projects, you need engineers.
This will happen in domains beyond engineering too. AI causes companies to take on way more work than before, which leads to needing more experts to oversee the work.
Even as models get better and better, they can be better utilized by the experts in those fields than the novices. Great time to be an expert.
Sam Lambert (@samlambert): Have you noticed that people have stopped saying that software engineering is over?
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