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Cursor, AI-native code editor, recently reported It writes about a billion lines of code every day. That’s a billion lines of production-grade code accepted by users every day. If we generously assume that a strong engineer writes a thousand lines of code a day, the cursor is doing the equivalent of one. million Developers. (For reference, when working on Pinterest and Meta, I typically write less than 100 lines of code per day.)
There are only about 25 million software developers worldwide! Intuitively, it appears that cursors are making a meaningful percentage of coders obsolete.
This raises the question: is it even worth learning coding now?
The answer is a resounding yes.” The above fear-based analysis of the cursor misses several important points.
First, the demand for software is insatiable. Having computers properly follow our instructions (i.e., coding) is incredibly valuable economically. However, for decades now, the number of people with specialized skills in communicating with computers has been limited. If AI tools let us write more functional code, many more people, companies, and industries will benefit. As Marc Andreessen famously noted in his 2011 essay “Why is software eating the world?“The demand for software is elastic. As software becomes cheaper, we are seeing a disproportionately large increase in demand.
There’s no such thing as killing a software project. Humans are very good at demanding more products and services, and software will inevitably play a role in that future.
Another important observation is that AI-assisted code is a continuation of the evolution of software development. In the 1970s, we programmed with punch cards. Then we started writing low-level code from the keyboard. Then we moved to higher-level languages. Each successive era saw large increases in the number of software engineers, as well as improvements in the productivity of each individual. We’ve seen this story before: AI is just another tool to give us superpowers.
Coding tools like Cursor or Devin are about replacing software engineers rather than increasing the number of software engineers. Going forward, writing code will no longer be limited to people with a particular title; Everyone including lawyers, accountants and doctors will develop software. Cursor will not replace the 25 million software engineers we have today. Instead, it will create millions more.
-A male name
ieee spectrumThe annual ranking of the top programming languages is here – and it may be the last. Coders are now turning away from the many public expressions of interest in various languages (such as Google searches and Stack Exchange queries), which have served as the key metric for rankings since 2013. What does the move toward AI coding tools mean for the future of programming and how do we track the coding landscape?
Read more here.
Also in the realm of how AI is impacting programming: The Stanford Digital Economy Lab has released a report that finds early evidence that generic AI has hit employment for young workers in the occupations that make the most use of AI, including software engineering. The report used data from ADP, the largest payroll provider in the United States, to obtain updated employment and earnings data for millions of workers.
Read more here.
The Trump administration recently issued an executive order adding a fee of $100,000 to new H-1B visa petitions. Major tech companies like Amazon are among the largest H-1B employers, but some higher education positions may also be affected. inside higher ed Report on which institutions have the most of these visas and how they compare to other industries.
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