My first “real jobs” were in the printing business. It was the early 1990s and the computer revolution was well under-way, and the internet was just about to take off. Everyone told me that computers and the internet were going to make paper and printing obsolete. I was warned that my job … heck, the entire printing industry was facing an existential threat.

Two years later our print shop had so much work we could not keep up and there was a paper shortage across the country because the paper mills were running 24 hours a day and still could not meet demand. The owner of the print shop that I worked for was buying as much paper as possible, back-stocking truckloads in storage lockers, and raising all its prices to cover the costs.

True story.

Technology Increases the Size of the Market

The actual result was that computers and the internet dramatically reduced the barriers to entry. Things like creating production art and send files became so much more efficient that the total cost of printing still declined even if the actual paper and printing part became more expensive.

Printing became accessible to smaller businesses. Print runs could be smaller and still be cost effective. New computer algorithms optimized multiple press jobs to be easily ganged up to maximize sheets of paper before cutting.

In the thirty years since then, every time I head doom-and-gloom stories about how some new advancement in tech is going to be the end of this job or that industry I think of the lesson that taught me. AI and ML … feels the same to me.

I Asked ChatGPT if it was a Threat to Software Developers

StackFactor is a Learning Productivity tool built to help people learn the skills they need and help companies develop employee talent. If OpenAI and ChatGPT — or any other version of AI to come — is a threat to the people learning technical skills, we certainly need to be aware of that. Further, we are using Machine Learning and AI to help us deliver the best results possible. So, if our own application is going to try to kill us, we need to know that too, right?

First things first … I asked OpenAI's ChatGPT:

How do you think that OpenAI will affect the work and livelihood of software developers?

Not surprisingly, this prompt resulted in a listing of ways that OpenAI can help software developers do their jobs. But before we get to that list — a list that I kind of agree with — let's start with the first thing that I learned.

I Am Still WAY Smarter than ChatGPT

The first thing that I learned is that I am still a better writer than ChatGPT. Wait, let's say that a different way … I am still a much better “communicator” than ChatGPT.

• • ChatGPT made zero typos … I make lots of them. One point for the AI bots
• • Thinking through the problem … ChatGPT sucks. Point for the human.
• • Organizing concepts into a story … ChatGPT did even get on the field. Another point for the human.
• • Speed … I write creative works from a cold start at a rate of about 400 words per hour, including self-editing review. ChatGPT can dash that off in a minute. So, this is sort of a point for ChatGPT, right? But fast is not equal to good.
• • Inventing a new idea or new take … it should be obvious from both an intuitive and technical standpoint that the human wins this one too. By definition, ChatGPT and all Machine Learning models build off of an existing data set that it learns from. It can only simulate creativity and insight … show you something new to you, perhaps.

The human wins 3 to 2.

ChatGPT's List of Impacts to Software Developers

What ChatGPT actually did rather well was provide a starting list to work from. Here is ChatGPT's list of the ways that OpenAI will affect software developers:

• • Increased Automation
• • Improved Efficiency
• • New Opportunities
• • Skills and Training

OK … not a bad list. But ChatGPT also provided a paragraph of commentary for each that read it was written by an intern fashion blogger.

Increased Automation through AI

ChatGPT's explanation on this one was total garbage, so here is mine … imagine the possibilities for dynamic applications. We are coming to the point in tech where we can design applications that learn from their use. Think of it as A/B testing on steroids … user testing as a superpower.

And this automation can happen in real time. What if AI on your website can learn from the content that the visitor is spending more time on and dynamically bring more of that content forward … just on the session instance of the website that they see? What if your application does not have to rely on the setting of user preferences to start … what if it can learn from how actual users are using it and make recommendations or even dynamically make changes for you?

Improved Efficiency

AI tools from OpenAI and similar companies have been shown to be helpful in finding code blocks for existing, standardized processes and deliver that code as a DRAFT in a compatible format and language. Once you have written enough code, a clever developer like you could even train your own model (piece of cake, actually) so that Machine Learning would be able to provide code snippets and blocks to you in your own style, flare, and format.

New Opportunities

File this under, “duh.” All you have to do these days is open up Monster.com or LinkedIn recruiter tools or whatever job posting or recruiting tool you are using at the moment to see that AI and ML job postings are springing up everywhere.

But I think that jobs like “Machine Learning Engineer” and “Artificial Intelligence Data Scientist” will eventually return to being the niche cases that they have been. But being a real, productive, proven software developer who has ML and AI experience and can use that experience to make their projects better and more valuable … that is the opportunity.

Skills and Training

ChatGPT just spit out nonsense in describing this. Since StackFactor is in the “skills and Training” business, this isn't surprising. But it points out an interesting and important differentiation. Since we know that ChaptGPT was trained on data from the internet up through 2021, and since MOST of the content on the internet is garbage and empty double-speak, it should not surprise us that ChatGPT spits out some garbagy double-speak here and there.

But to the point … software developers and technologist will have to learn and understand AI and ML going forward in order to remain relevant. But this is nothing new. Technologists had to keep up with every new wave of tech in the same way.

Same song … different day.

OpenAI and ChatGPT Are Not Skynet Terminators

Here's the key.

Software developers and technologists who find the path to the best of both worlds will be the winners. Success will come by using AI and ML as the tools they can be to work faster, write better code, and create more value. And increase speed and quality will mean good software developers can produce more in the same amount of time, reducing the costs of applications for businesses and end users.

This will allow more businesses to have custom apps and more start-ups to prototype and bring solutions to market faster and less expensively. So, more of those will happen too.

Just like the print shop … better technology makes more, not less.

Note

[This article was 100% written by a real person on the StackFactor Team … just saying.]