As corporations boast about how much they’re investing in automation, the reality is that many employers are practically forcing the tech on their workers. Nowhere has that been more visible than software engineers, with companies including Meta even introducing “leaderboards” to show which employees are burning the most AI tokens in real-time. (View Highlight)
But it turns out that embrace of AI by programmers may come at a steep price. Many are speaking out, saying they now simply review AI-generated code instead of writing it themselves — a rote task, it turns out, that’s an important part of keeping their technical skills sharp. (View Highlight)
Not all companies mandate the use of AI in the workplace, but the tools are seductive regardless. Another anonymous software engineer told 404 that while he wasn’t outright forced to use LLMs, he and his colleagues were discreetly given access to Cursor for coding and found themselves using it regularly. Sure, he found, AI coding tools can save time and effort — but if they undermine core intellectual skills required to architect larger projects, the problem is soon going to come home to roost for employers. (View Highlight)
“It’s making me dumber for sure,” the same developer told 404. “It’s like when we got cellphones and stopped remembering phone numbers, but it’s grown to me mentally outsourcing ‘thinking’ in general. I feel my critical thinking and ability to sit and reason about a problem or a design has degraded because the all-knowing-dalai-llama is just a question away from giving me his take.” (View Highlight)
