There's this joke about clients not knowing what they want, so they couldn't possibly explain it to an AI and therefore developers will keep their jobs.

Honestly AI works for writing a small function, and it's definitely superior to Google / SO when searching for code examples.

But in the context of a large app with more exceptions than business rules and where you have to take in to account legacy code & constraints ... I don't see an AI figuring that all out for the simple reason that it's too hard to explain to it the big picture.

Sounds like the ultimate business idea. Sell customers a magic shovel that eliminates their need to hire shovelers. If it doesn't work, just tell them to be more specific with their requests to the Shovel.

Agree as well. We are at the very beginning, AI is the worst it will be right now. Those who keep saying 'I can't see how my job is at risk' living under a rock.

any advice for what developers should do given you think workforce reduction is on it’s way?

I remember watching streaming video on the real player on a 56k modem. It was a complete joke but you could envision things getting much better.

Is it fair to say TV broadcasters/production professionals were in danger of losing their jobs in that moment? Kind of, but TV broadcasters/production professionals were also the people in the best position to take advantage of the new advances.

Of course, that was predicated on being open to change and not clinging to the past.

Surely, anyone on HN talking about AI right now is in good shape.

We are inside the bubble. There is a huge % of even young people who have no interest in any of this. It is like 50% of 18-29yo haven't even used chatGPT themselves in the US.