Is it irrational that this makes me a little anxious about job security over the longterm? Idk why but this was my initial reaction when learning about this.
Given the scenario where copilot and its likes becomes used in a widespread manner. Can it be argued that this might improve productivity but stifle innovation?
Im pretty early in my career but the rate things are capable of changing soon doesn’t sit too well with me.
In the 50s, we programmed computers with punch cards. Who does now? How many web developers today could tell the difference between `malloc` and `calloc`? Probably not that many.
For a lot of developers, programming today bears very little relation to programming decades ago. Copilot is like any other innovation - it obsoletes some skills, and it introduces new ones.
I doubt copilot will reduce the need for engineers: but it may change the work they do. But that's no different to any other industry.
Every time this happens, everyone just shifts the goal posts and they now want more features, faster. The majority of software out there sucks. If programmers are now 2x faster, users will demand that some random crud app be at Google software quality. And Google's software will be unimaginable by today's standards.
All of this will increase the value delivered by software, which will bring in greater revenue, which will be reinvested in more developers.