Lior Amsalem

There’s an bubbling sparking conversations and concerns about AI potential to replace human jobs. One of the most pressing questions in the software engineering community is whether AI will eventually replace the need for skilled code writers. As the founder of lior.live, a blog dedicated to software engineering, web development, and the world of code, I’ve discussed this topic with friends, colleagues and alike to explore the intersection of AI and software engineering.

The Fear of Automation

In recent years, advancements in AI have led to automation in various industries, raising alarms about the future of employment. Software engineers, in particular, have grappled with the looming uncertainty of whether their jobs will be overtaken by intelligent machines. The fear of automation is palpable, with concerns about job security and the relevance of traditional coding skills in an AI-driven world. “The rapid advancement of AI technology has led to speculation about its potential to replace human workers, including software engineers,” says Ruby, a software developer at a leading tech company. “It’s natural to feel apprehensive about the future when faced with the prospect of automation.” In early stages of AI, the assumption was that AI will replace “simple” and “easy” works that require no knowledge. Like flipping burgers or cleaning the floor or entrance security guard and more similar jobs. And we assumed that creative jobs like designers, artists, UI/UX designers, games artist, writing, musician, singers and anything creative will hold tied against the raise of the AI.

It may seem intuitive to assume that AI would primarily target jobs that rely heavily on repetitive tasks and routine operations. Roles such as security guards, factory workers, and fast-food employees, which entail predictable and repetitive actions, appear to be the most susceptible to automation. The rise of AI-powered robotics and automation technologies has indeed led to a small portion of displacement of such jobs, as machines can perform these tasks more efficiently and consistently than humans, However at this time at higher cost and likelihood of maintenance problems.

“The assumption that AI will replace jobs like security guards, burger flippers, and other repetitive tasks is based on the idea that machines excel at tasks that require precision and repetition,” explains Mark, a technology analyst specializing in AI trends. “From assembly line operations to data entry tasks, AI has demonstrated its ability to streamline processes and optimize efficiency in various industries.” , However still at high cost. and most likely will stay that way in the upcoming future.

The Surprise of AI

Dispute the assumption that we’ll see simple, repetitive, easy to frame, technical jobs will be replaced by AI. In 2023 we’ve seen the raise of ChatGPT, diffusionAI, stabilityAI, diffusionAI, Midjourney, Sora(ai for video creation) and much more AI models that are focus and exel in the real of design, creativity, uniqueness, mixing of art, replication of art and anything related to design. As the raise of art related AI increase in 2023, we see a growing fear by designers, artists and related fields for their future jobs. However, closer look will tell a different story. Ai is able to mix new designs from existing ones, AI is able to mash up between 2 different style of art, AI is able to extend existing art and create more based on that art, AI is able to use existing color schema and same design language to create more elements from same source. However aI is not able to create something from complete scratch, It’s not able to innovate out of thin air, it’s not able to tell which color schema are working we’ll together or not, which colors matching a company brand or be able and hide a political statement inside a work of art out of spontaneous thought.

End?

The bottom line is, that AI is most capable to take a bigger role within current job market, and it is most likely that upcoming years it will provide assistant to existing roles, but it’s most likely that those roles will stay in the hand of capable and skillful people around the world. The raise of AI remind me of Tesla biggest mistake, at the early days of Tesla, It’s cofounder Elon and his engineers, Assumed that building cars with full automated process will make Tesla a great car company, and so they did invest heavily into automation of car creation between 2014-2018. However at later stages of Tesla, Elon shifted back from automation to employees, Workers returned to the manufacturing process. Tesla backed down from fully automated process of car creation, The heavy, big arms that replace people throw back to the storage facility and people got back in line of work, Rather than to be replaced by automated machines. It turn out to be that people have value too.