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khamelean t1_j6chkcm wrote

Reply to comment by BigZaddyZ3 in AI will not replace software developers, It will just drastically reduce the number of them. by masterile

You’re only thinking about changes in supply. But the demand for applications of new technologies is almost infinite.

Of course at some point productivity becomes so high the idea of “working for a living” becomes unnecessary.

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kushal1509 t1_j6clk57 wrote

Agreed, the more efficient we get the richer we become. AI will make society wealthier which will create demand for new products and services.

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BigZaddyZ3 t1_j6chpr2 wrote

But as one entity becomes capable of more, that actually reduces the demand for other entities.

And the idea that demand for coding is infinite is just an unrealistic assumption.

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khamelean t1_j6ciqxm wrote

No, increasing supply does not reduce demand.

I didn’t say infinite, I said almost infinite. Historically speaking the demand for new technology has only increased as new technologies become available. Obviously that can go on forever, but we are definitely several thousand years away from meeting demand.

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BigZaddyZ3 t1_j6cj7hs wrote

If one person suddenly becomes capable of doing the same amount of work as 10 people, then it becomes only logical to only pay the one person to do the 10 jobs. Instead of paying 10 people to do one job. (Which would be way more expensive.) If one person’s capabilities increase, it does reduce the need (aka demand) for other employees. That’s just basic economics.

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Memfy t1_j6cv352 wrote

For that specific position, yes. The world is in overall shortage of supply for such workers, and the overall demand is just increasing each year. So even if you replace 10 people with 1 person, those 10 people might still have other projects they could be working on unless you can mass produce the 10x worker and cover all the areas of expertise you need with such workers.

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czk_21 t1_j6fq3od wrote

there is no guarantee there will be enough need for new applications, there wont be new tech every day and if that day comes AI will be the one leading advancement(and development)

if demand was "almost infinite" then every software developer would be multimillionaire nowadays

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khamelean t1_j6frpvs wrote

No, demand is relative to cost. There are many things that people want, but it’s just to expensive to do, and not worth the cost.

As software tooling becomes more powerful, things that used to be expensive become cheaper and the cost/value proposition changes. That’s why new technological advancement constantly unlocks new demand.

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czk_21 t1_j6j7kkg wrote

I guess there will be more demand but I disagree that demand is infinite or almost infinite, there is finite amount of humans and companies and these have finite demand as well

imgien for example there is software company making antivirus software, its enough if there are several companies like that, ppl dont need 1000s different antivir software several decent one is enough, there wont be really much bigger demand for more

when 1 programmer will be needed to do work of 10, that antivir company wont need the rest, yes they can speed up the work and improvement by keeping 1 or 2 aditional ppl- that would already mean company is about 20x more productive, there is only so much work that should or could be done on your product in small timeframe

some of those who will not be needed in their companies could go to some other projects, but their amount will be finite as well

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