Comment by hn_throwaway_99

I felt this article was a lot of strawman-ing.

Yes, there are people who think LLMs are just a fad, just like NFTs, and I agree these people are not really serious and that they are wrong. I think anyone who has used an AI coding agent recently knows that they are highly capable and can enhance productivity in the right hands.

But, as someone who gets a lot of value in AI coding agents, my issue is not with gen AI as a productivity enhancing tool - it's with the absolute torrent of BS about how AI is soon going to make coders obsolete, and the way AI has been shoved onto many engineering teams is like yet another incarnation of the latest management fad. My specific arguments:

1. As the author pretty much acknowledges, AI agents still basically suck at large, system-wide "thinking" and changes. And the way they work with their general "guess and check" method means they can churn out code that is kinda sorta right, but often leaves huge holes or outright laughable bugs.

2. Hallucinations are the worst possible failure modes - they look correct, which makes it all the more difficult to determine they're actually bullshit. I shudder to think about who will need to maintain the mountains of "vibe code" that is now being generated. Certainly not fucking me; I had a good career but I think now is definitely the right time to peace out.

3. Even if I could totally agree that there is a strong business case for AI, I can still, as an individual, think it makes my job generally shittier, and there is nothing wrong with having that opinion.

I don't think I'd be so anti-AI if I saw a rational, cautious debate about how it can enhance productivity. But all I see are folks with a vested interest overselling its capabilities and minimizing its downsides, and it just feels really tiresome.