ChatGPT Won’t Replace Me… Yet.

Robots writing code. This image was generated by a robot.

Perhaps you’ve seen articles or tweets positing that A.I. will be the death of the software developer.

A tweet where the user said A.I. could replace software engineers

• https://levelup.gitconnected.com/chatgpt-will-replace-programmers-within-10-years-91e5b3bd3676
• https://nypost.com/2023/01/25/chat-gpt-could-make-these-jobs-obsolete/

And so on… It’s a hot topic, for sure, but I don’t think we software engineers should be “throwing in the towel” yet. Tools like ChatGPT are extremely impressive, but there is more to a software developer than just writing code.

Disclaimer: I’m still pretty new to the ChatGPT/A.I. scene, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. These are more of my thoughts on the subject so far.

I spend a lot of time working with various clients and stakeholders. When I start working with a new client, a large chunk of my time is spent asking questions. As a software developer building a new system for a client, I am responsible for trying and understanding the problem I need to solve as best as possible. Part of my “expertise” is knowing the right questions to ask to build the best possible understanding. I wouldn’t say that an A.I. system can’t perform this task, but…