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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   17512 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025

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So, is AI coming for the programmer jobs? There's a news story in my country about Microsoft seeking redundancies globally which probably means chopping jobs here as well, and one paragraph mentions AI:

Microsoft employs around 4,000 people in Ireland, with a further 2,000 people employed at its subsidiary, Linkedin, which has a base in Dublin.

The cuts are to be implemented across several divisions and geographical offices, according to the Seattle Times, reporting from Microsoft’s global headquarters.

The tech giant has said that the layoffs are part of a restructuring effort.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently disclosed that up to a third of programming at the tech company is now done by AI, with a higher percentage likely.

However, the current cuts are thought to be aimed across several job categories, including sales and middle-management.

...The company has previously said that cuts would involve "streamlining the organisation, eliminating management layers”, with no further detail on the sectors to be targeted, other than that it intended to shrink expenses in “R&D, marketing, general and administrative” divisions.

Granted, that seems to be trimming jobs across management and admin rather than software engineers, but the little nugget about "up to a third of programming is now done by AI" does seem to be a straw in the wind. Yes? No? Just means they're not hiring new junior staff?

If anyone thinks ChatGPT is ready to replace programmers then just like... ask it to build some software for you. Enough to run a sustainable business. It's ready to be an employee, ok then, go employ it. That's free money for you that's just sitting there for the taking.

I directed Sonnet to make some software. It's doable. It works. Gets revenue. Not sustainable as yet though.

I think it's a decent employee and very cost-efficient, albeit not perfect.

Is this personal software you build and sell on your own? Or is this part of a corporate / small biz code base.

The former.

Congrats! That "zero to one" of actually getting the damn thing out to customers is the hardest part.

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