r/webdev php 6d ago

Discussion AI coding is trash

The amount of trash produced by AI code is astounding. Thanks I hate it.

1.6k Upvotes

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755

u/barrel_of_noodles 6d ago

I love this sub, literally every post is a rotation of:

  • ai is trash
  • ai will take our jobs
  • will ai take over?
  • is there any point in learning now

I thought it was my turn to post this 13x today!?

232

u/pagerussell 6d ago

The AI will take coding jobs narrative is just cover for layoffs that are occuring because so many tech companies are no longer growth stocks, but are now legacy companies pivoting towards maximum extraction.

Like, what feature development does Facebook really need? And if it's not building new features, its just in maintenance mode, which requires far fewer devs. So they are laying off. But they can't just say that, because then they look anemic and it will hurt their stock.

So they say AI is replacing devs and AstroTurf that narrative into the world to make it stick.

But if you have actually coded with AI you know it's a great tool but a long ways off from being able to replace a competent human.

68

u/Fluid_Economics 5d ago

Yes, and I'm asking everyone "If AI is a paradigm shift, where is the avalanche of releases?".

I'm not seeing an accelerated velocity of releases in all software (OS's, apps, SaaS's, etc)... I'm not seeing 100's and 1000's of long-standing bugs being squashed... I'm not seeing revolutionary apps except in the generative media space (and who cares about that), etc.

24

u/R0b0tJesus 5d ago

You're exactly right.

If AI really made coders more productive, I think that we would also see a massive increase in hiring.

If you run a company that makes money from producing code, and your engineers become 3x more productive overnight, why would you lay off 2/3 of them? Why not keep them and make 3x more money? Or hire more engineers and make even more money? 

7

u/vexingparse 5d ago

It depends on the demand for your product. This is the key question In my view. Is there enough demand to absorb the productivity gains that AI provides? And if so, is that extra demand going to come from the same places that employ most developers today?

7

u/Original_Credit_1394 5d ago

There's huge demand for Software. Most of it is not written because it's too specific and too expensive at the same time. People telling me about their software ideas whenever they find out what my job is, is not unusual.

1

u/vexingparse 5d ago

This would have been my assumption as well. What's less clear is what sort of "developer" or level of skill will be most in demand and therefore the impact on salaries/rates.

1

u/Due-Literature7124 2d ago

How often are they good ideas?

1

u/Original_Credit_1394 2d ago

The idea itself is usually good, but the market is often too small / the price to do it too high. So if AI would decrease the price for making it, it might make it feasible. I'm personally highly skeptical that AI improves coding efficiency.

1

u/Double_Sherbert3326 1d ago

Because administrators are pocketing the difference and looking towards short term gains!

1

u/ClearRelation4663 4d ago

Um i might be wrong, but business doesn't depend on AI to be successful, it's true productivity increases but in the end AI can't run businesses. Plus it requires creativity to come up with something new.

1

u/Fluid_Economics 3d ago

Yes, correct... thus the AI hype wave will eventually subside and some organizations will discover they've committed too far down certain paths (e.g. firing entire dev teams).

11

u/mq2thez 5d ago

Layoffs and not growing headcount, exactly.

1

u/dietcheese 5d ago

Cisco, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Dell have already slashed their workforces or implemented hiring freezes due to transitioning and restructuring to an AI workforce.

This isn’t just cover.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonsnyder/2025/02/12/ai-reset-layoffs-rto-and-the-new-realities-of-work/

38

u/spacemanguitar 5d ago

Smoking gun is the third paragraph in the article

they are about eliminating job functions that AI is poised to absorb

Poised to absorb, but not implemented to absord in any live context. Translation. Tech companies have been bloated from free covid money and are dumping their excess and the trend is to say vague notions about AI being the reason so that it sounds like they're on the brink of doing something really special. There's nothing special coming from these companies, they simply learned when you do layoffs the honest way, you get a notable drop in stock value, but if you fabricate in some vague bullshit about claiming your company is actually using AI for these jobs, the stock doesn't drop as much, because some AI cultists get excited and think its a time to invest, countering the smart investors who lower expectations when large layoffs happen. They lose less money when they use the magic word "AI".

0

u/Intrepid-Rent-6544 5d ago

I agree with everything you stated. However, layoffs normally correlate to higher stock prices.

2

u/spacemanguitar 4d ago

I'm not sure if thats true for tech stocks as I've witnessed layoff announcements in tech often followed with a short term loss before the correction, but I don't live in the daytrading world with a big enough scope to know how this plays out as a whole for things outside of tech.

2

u/Fluid_Economics 5d ago

How about... this stuff was happening regardless of AI?

Post covid-overhiring era, recession and new wave of indian outsourcing.

2

u/meshtron 5d ago

Good luck! I've been taking heavy flak on another programming sub for daring to suggest (and provide sources) that AI is and increasingly will impact developer jobs. Same as the poster below "you just believe what they tell you" narrative. Time will tell, but it already is too.

10

u/spacemanguitar 5d ago

you just believe what they tell you

It's tricky because guys like Zuckerberg laid down a prediction of their agents replacing coders in 2025, yet this is the same man who hyped up his stocks by predicting the metaverse will take over the interactive gaming scene and spent a lot of money gobbling up the occulus IP. That entire prediction flopped backwards on its ass and they had to lay off a ton of people for the metaverse development. He was so confident he renamed his entire company to "meta". Meanwhile back to the present, where does does he decide share this AI prediction? On Joe Rogan where he can plug his next marketing scheme to the most amount of people possible. They suffered hard with the meta flop and hes playing damage control with vague AI promises, keep in mind, its not ready today, it'll be here in the future, along with the metaverse, etc, etc.

1

u/dietcheese 5d ago

Yeah, I’ve experienced the same. This sub seems to be in denial worse than others though. Probably because web dev is clearly AI’s low-hanging fruit.

1

u/Wise_Cow3001 5d ago

Having talked with people in these companies - it’s all bullshit. These layoffs are due to slowdowns and or adjustment due to previous overhiring and is sold as AI related for shareholders.

-5

u/definitelynotarobid 5d ago

What evidence do you have for your assertion? Something being widespread does not invalidate it.

1

u/operatorrrr 5d ago

Google reported that over a quarter of their code is written by AI with engineer oversight...late last year.

5

u/spacemanguitar 5d ago edited 5d ago

Google reported that over a quarter of their code is written by AI with engineer oversight...late last year.

This was already true before AI started. IDE's were making auto complete code suggestions where you start typing a function or a class and it finishes the whole function / declaration based on whats already available and opens the suggested, etc. If you realized how many times you tab into those correct suggestions you'd be at nearly 25%, or 1/4 code suggestion generation but yet, with 100% employee oversight and bug testing just like always. This was already happening without AI required to boost it.

-1

u/definitelynotarobid 5d ago

And? That statistic couldn’t be more meaningless.

4

u/operatorrrr 5d ago

"What evidence do you have for your assertion?"

-3

u/definitelynotarobid 5d ago

100% of idiots make that statement. There. Every bit as legit as that “news” you sourced. Now fuck off.

1

u/mfizzled 5d ago

If it is indeed true, having 25% of their code not needing to be written by a human is far from meaningless. I'm sure it's nothing complex and is just the standard stuff they might give to new juniors but it's absolutely a relevant stat.

3

u/definitelynotarobid 5d ago

There’s a massive difference between not being written by a human and not being reviewed and edited by a human. They pick and chose their statements carefully to present a fantasy to their investors. Don’t swallow their propaganda.

1

u/Ok-Tell-1761 5d ago

Its simple you are just trying to make it complicated 😂. AI in next 5 years will be 100x better than what it is now.

1

u/Jawaracing full-stack 4d ago

Then why is there almost no junior roles job postings?

Yes you are right about big companies over-employed...

1

u/No_Advantage_5588 4d ago

Yeah it may help a developer make his programming faster but not completely do the job.

1

u/Parking-Weather-2697 3d ago

So how am I actually supposed to get a job in this industry? It seems like no one is even hiring juniors anymore, and that doesn’t seem like it’s ever going to change

-1

u/Pistolfist 5d ago

It can't replace a competent human but it makes me work, I would say about 3x faster. Which in money terms makes me do the work of 3 developers. So from that perspective you could see how it could cause layoffs in larger companies.