AI Can Write Your Code. It Can't Do Your Job.

"In May, OpenAI agreed to pay $3 billion for Windsurf, the AI coding assistant formerly known as Codeium. Three billion dollars. For a VSCode fork. The deal eventually fell apart, but what matters is that they wanted to do it in the first place. Last week, Anthropic made an interesting acquisition: they bought Bun, the JavaScript runtime. Bun is open source and MIT-licensed. Anthropic could have forked it and built on top of it for free. They have Claude Code, an excellent code-writing tool."

"This is what I keep coming back to when I see another "Programming is dead" post go viral. The companies building AI, the ones who supposedly know exactly what it can and can't do, are spending billions to acquire engineering talent. Not fire them, acquire them. If OpenAI believed GPT could replace software engineers, why wouldn't they build their own VS Code fork for a fraction of that cost? If Anthropic thought Claude could do the work, why make an acquisition at all?"

AI-generated code can perform the mechanical aspects of programming, significantly accelerating development and automating routine tasks. Major AI companies invest billions to acquire engineering teams and existing projects rather than solely relying on AI tools, indicating continued value in human technical leadership. Programming is a task within a larger role that includes understanding vague requirements, defining correct solutions, making trade-offs, and coordinating with stakeholders. Calculators analogy: tools automate mechanical work but not judgment or advisory responsibilities. Engineers interpret problems, choose where to change code, design systems, and exercise domain knowledge. Therefore, skill sets that combine technical execution with judgment, communication, and product thinking remain essential.

Read at Terrible Software