Modern ML systems do not succeed because of models alone - they succeed because of the software engineering wrapped around them. Most real-world failures in MLOps come from poor structure, missing configuration, messy environments, unclear APIs, or nonexistent logging, not from bad ML.
He used chess as an example: 15 to 20 years ago, a human checking AI's output could beat an AI or a human playing alone. Now, AI can beat people without that layer of human supervision. Amodei, who cofounded AI lab Anthropic in 2021, added that the same transition would happen in software engineering. "We're already in our centaur phase for software," Amodei said. "During that centaur phase, if anything, the demand for software engineers may go up. But the period may be very brief."
Few tools have reshaped day-to-day work in tech as quickly as generative AI; coding tasks that once took developers days-or weeks-can now be spun up in seconds. So naturally, many workers are now embracing "vibes" to program, instead of writing software line by line. But Minecraft creator Markus Persson, the billionaire developer better known as "Notch," is sounding an alarm: even if tech companies are embracing coding with AI, that doesn't make it a good thing.
Over the past seven years, I've worked for multiple companies shipping blockchain integrations and production-grade financial infrastructure in Lagos, Amsterdam, and now Toronto. I started my career in Nigeria, where I was born and raised, and moved to Amsterdam in May 2023 after a short career break for a job as a senior software engineer. I returned to Nigeria after a year and worked until I received my Canadian work visa through my wife in October 2024.
