AI Coding Is the Future – Virtualization Overview

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AWS CEO and GitHub Agree on One Thing: AI Coding Is the Future

Since GitHub Copilot debuted years ago, the industry has predicted that AI coding is the future, with many trying to quell fears of job losses in the transition. That refrain goes something like this: AI won’t replace programmers, it will help programmers.

Well, it can do more than that, considering the entire industry Information from Business Insider a recent report on how AWS CEO Matt Garman predicted a possible future where “most developers won’t code.”

This view, reinforced by a new report from GitHub itself that sheds light on just how much AI has changed the software development scene, may cause some to reassess the impact of AI coding.

“Software engineers will soon need to develop other skills as artificial intelligence takes over many coding tasks” – this is the first sentence in Business information article titled “In Leaked Recording, Amazon Cloud Chief Tells Employees Most Developers May Soon Stop Coding Because AI Will Take Over.”

The recording is from an internal fireside chat that took place in June.

The article pointed out that Garman was “offering advice rather than issuing an ominous warning that programmers would be wiped out by AI,” but AI’s impact on software development may be more profound than many thought. Even if programmers don’t lose their jobs, they may have to change their job descriptions.

The same day that Business information This week, GitHub released its AI in software development 2024 survey report, which found that nearly all of the developers surveyed used AI coding tools.

Key findings from the report presented by GitHub include:

• The wave of generative AI in software development continues to grow. This year, we expanded our survey to 2,000 respondents—and nearly all of them (over 97%) said they used these tools at some point, both at work and outside of work. (That doesn’t mean every one of their companies approved their use.)

  

• While survey respondents say their organizations are eager to embrace AI, there is still room for progress. Survey data indicates that the vast majority (59%–88%) of respondents across all markets said their companies “actively encourage” or “enable” the use of these tools. To maximize the benefits of these tools, organizations should have a roadmap, clear strategy, and policies to ensure broader adoption by building trust and driving measurable performance metrics.

  

• Development teams are seeing more benefits from using AI coding tools than previously anticipated. Some of these include creating more secure software, better code quality, better test case generation, and faster programming language adoption. Ultimately, this resulted in time savings that they could use for more strategic tasks.

GitHub actually toed the line on the industry cliché mentioned above, saying, “AI doesn’t replace human labor — it frees up time for human creativity.”

So, for now, there aren’t many “dire warnings” about programmers hitting the unemployment line because of AI, but the debate about exactly how AI will affect software development continues. For example, yesterday Forbes published “Is AI Coming for Programmers’ Jobs? It’s Much More Interesting.”

The Atlassian State of the Developer Experience 2024 report was mentioned, in which 62 percent of respondents said that AI-based tools do not improve personal productivity at all or only slightly.

This Forbes This article by Jason Andersen notes the arrival of some great new AI technology, while pointing out that the industry is still working on its broader adoption and more useful capabilities for developers.

“Yet there is a common misconception among the general public that programmer work is the primary target of AI replacement,” the article states. “I understand that belief when anyone can go to an AI website, request code, and simply return to it. However, after taking a closer look at the current and future product roadmaps of the major software vendors, I have come to two conclusions. First, programmers will continue to be a valued resource for some time—at least for years to come. Second, we are entering the second generation of developer-assisted technologies that significantly enhance the capabilities of programmers—without the threat of replacing them.”

So, “Artificial intelligence should help, not replace” – that is the industry’s standard position for now.