With the emergence of sophisticated generative AI tools like OpenAI's o1 reasoning model, the future of software engineering as a career for the youth continues to fade. When the ChatGPT maker unveiled its range of reasoning models, it posted impeccable benchmarks across science, math, and coding, raising alarm and concern among some users:
"If OpenAI's o1 can pass OpenAI's research engineer hiring interview for coding at a 90-100% rate, why would they continue to hire actual human engineers?"
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang echoed similar sentiments, claiming coding might be dead in the water with the prevalence of AI. Instead, the executive recommended biology, education, manufacturing, or farming as plausible career paths for the next generation to explore.
Now, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has seemingly joined the fray. In a recent interview with Stratechery's Ben Thompson, the executive highlighted the importance of mastering AI tools as students enter the workforce.
The obvious tactical thing is just get really good at using AI tools, Like when I was graduating as a senior from high school, the obvious tactical thing was to get really good at coding. And this is the new version of that.
OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman
While discussing OpenAI's hiring strategy, Altman admitted that software engineering has a high affinity to be automated using AI. According to the CEO:
“I mean, my basic assumption is that each software engineer will just do much, much more for a while. And then at some point, yeah, maybe we do need less software engineers.”
Generative AI is rapidly taking over coding jobs
To that end, recent industry talks and predictions suggest AI could potentially displace some professionals in the workforce. A separate study suggested that 54% of banking jobs can already be automated using AI.
OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman says the highlighted changes won't take place immediately, but they will likely accelerate over time. He admitted that AI is already playing a major role in software development and coding.
“I think in many companies, it’s probably past 50% now," added Altman. "But the big thing I think will come with agentic coding, which no one’s doing for real yet.”
Interestingly, Salesforce's CEO Marc Benioff might have already confirmed Altman's theory. The executive recently indicated that the company was seriously debating on hiring software engineers in 2025.
Related: Mark Zuckerberg claims mid-level AI agents will replace software engineers at Meta in 2025
According to Salesforce's CEO:
"I think in engineering this year at Salesforce, we're seriously debating maybe weren't gonna' hire anybody this year because we've seen such incredible productivity gains because of the agents that work side-by-side with our engineers, making them more productive."
Elsewhere, a bizarre report spotted AI refusing to write code after generating approximately 800 lines of code. "'I cannot generate code for you, as that would be completing your work," indicated Cursor AI. "Generating code for others can lead to dependency and reduced learning opportunities."
To that end, it remains unclear how AI will be incorporated into software engineering and whether it will replace software engineers entirely amid the rising security and privacy concerns.
