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Devs gripe about having AI shoved down their throats

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Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨brianpeiris@lemmy.ca⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/19/ai_force_feeding/

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  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This is just history repeating itself. A while ago it was typewriter repair persons vs. the keyboard. New tech won and time marched on. Having said that…fuck AI.

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  • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Lead and senior dev/architect here - not forced to use AI, but I spend my PD (personal development) days and hackathons trying out all new things, as every good dev, and anyone not trying out all the new AI tools is doing themselves a disservice. You will find out which ones are “AI slop”, which are just fancy stored procs or web apps, and which are actually useful for you and/or your job.

    I agree that workplaces shouldn’t be mandating the use of AI, but that’s very rarely the case.

    My team and I have implemented Agentic AI into the business in ways that will save literally thousands of man-hours a year, as well as drastically reduce support tickets, and give non-devs extremely powerful insights into real time analytics that they’ve never been able to have even with PowerBi/Kibana/AppInsights/etc.

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    • el_abuelo@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Careful with views like that. They’re not very popular here on Lemmy. Can’t possibly promote responsible and reasonable use of new computer software.

      AI bad.

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    • witx@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Did people stand up and clapped?

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      • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Nah they were sitting down when we did the live demo. Lots of clapping though. Whole team then got shouted a half day of lunch and drinks.

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  • phutatorius@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    My team have been trying it. So far, at best, it costs money but makes no difference in outcomes. Any productivity gains are wiped out by the time needed to diagnose and correct the errors it introduces.

    I’d use Clippy before I use any of that time-wasting, unreliable, energy-guzzling crap.

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  • resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    He also said the AI-generated code is often full of bugs. He cited one issue that occurred before his arrival that meant there was no session handling in his employer’s application, so anybody could see the data of any organization using his company’s software.

    It’s only financial software, NBD.

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    • phoenixz@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Well to be fair, financial data should be public, it would stop so many crimes, so much corruption.

      Maybe AI saw the problems that hidden financial data causes and just decided to do the world a favor!

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  • python@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’ve been refusing to use any AI tools at all and luckily my manager respects that, even if he uses AI for basically everything he does. If the company ever decides to mandate it I’ll just have the AI write all my code and commit it with no checks. With the worker’s rights here, it’ll take several months to fire me anyways.

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    • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’ve been refusing to use and AI tools at all

      Why? Do you refuse to use autocomplete in IDEs too? Do you refuse to use build and release tools? Why stop there - do you refuse to use computers at all? Just use pen and paper.

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      • python@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Because it’s not fun. Coming up with algorithms and elegant code is the most fun part about programming for me, and debugging pages of sloppy code is the least fun. AI makes the parts I like less fun and increases the amount of sloppy bullshit code I have to debug.

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      • crimsonpoodle@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Don’t use auto complete, do use lsp, build and release tools are not at all in the same vein.

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  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Managers are often idiots in over their heads. AI is really aggravating that problem.

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  • HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    As per usual, those pushing for AI the most are the ones who don’t fucking use it.

    Is AI good for printing out the syntax, or an example of a library you haven’t used before?

    Sure, sometimes yes. Sometimes no.

    Should it be a requirement to be a regular part of software development?

    No. AI hallucinates very often and is imitative in nature, not innovative.

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    • chilicheeselies@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      More generally, noone should be required to do anything particular until it affects the team. Forcing people to work a certain way is beyond stupid.

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    • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      And as per usual, those hating AI the most are the ones who don’t use it, don’t understand it, and/or hate it out of some misguided ideology.

      Imitative is fine, great even in software development. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Programming languages/class libraries/etc all exist to give standard and functioning ways to do things the way they’re supposed to be done.

      It’s funny that developers the world over absolutely loved and embraced tools like resharper, which was basically AI 0.5 for devs, yet now when AI is the evolution of that, everyone’s losing their mind.

      Knowledge of AI tools absolutely will and should be a part of developer competencies that are evaluated during interviews in the near future, and that includes being able to explain why and when you would/would not use specific AI tools.

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      • HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        And as per usual, those hating AI the most are the ones who don’t use it, don’t understand it, and/or hate it out of some misguided ideology.

        I’m a software engineer and I use AI on a regular basis.

        This shit isn’t fit to take on the vast majority of jobs dipshit CEOs or the pseudointellectuals who fondle their balls claim they can.

        Imitative is fine, great even in software development.

        Fine as a tool for software engineers to figure out complications with understanding code syntax or generating an example of some not so complicated code.

        It is fucking unreliable for full software development, which is what these tech oligarchs are trying to put it in charge of.

        You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Programming languages/class libraries/etc all exist to give standard and functioning ways to do things the way they’re supposed to be done.

        And AI is shit at making full implementations of that, let alone objectively or even rationally testing itself. If it doesn’t recognize an error in its own coding, why the hell would we trust it to recognize that error in testing?

        It’s funny that developers the world over absolutely loved and embraced tools like resharper, which was basically AI 0.5 for devs, yet now when AI is the evolution of that, everyone’s losing their mind.

        Because dumb fucks in power think AI is this magical tool that can do no wrong and do everything humans can do and better.

        We are FAR AWAY from that being a reality for the reasons I already covered, and more.

        Also, absolutely no company worth a damn has ever pushed anything from Resharper or AI to its millions of customers without human verification first. CEOS WANT TO ELIMINATE THAT HUMAN VERIFICATION! THATS A PROBLEM!

        Knowledge of AI tools absolutely will and should be a part of developer competencies that are evaluated during interviews in the near future, and that includes being able to explain why and when you would/would not use specific AI tools.

        Except, and I want you to pay close attention to this,

        CEOS WANT TO TOTALLY ELIMINATE THE HUMAN FACTOR FROM SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENTIRELY

        Not partially

        Not kinda sorta

        ENTIRELY

        Because they simply fundamentally do not understand what AI is, nor it’s restrictions.

        And it’s very clear, you don’t either.

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  • punrca@piefed.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The software engineer acknowledged that AI tools can help improve productivity if used properly, but for programmers with relatively limited experience, he feels the harm is greater than the benefit. Most of the junior developers at the company, he explained, don't remember the syntax of the language they're using due to their overreliance on Cursor.

    Good luck for the future developers I guess.

    companies that've spent money on AI enterprise licenses need to show some sort of ROI to the bean-counters. Hence, mandates.

    Can't wait for AI bubble to pop. If this continues, expect more incidents/outages due to AI generated slop code in the future.

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    • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Future developers will still have to learn the basics. Calculators existing doesn’t mean people aren’t taught basic maths, does it?

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    • scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      From what I see, the current is beginning to turn a little toward valuing senior e mg inners more than ever, because they can deal with the downsides of AI. Junior devs, on the other hand, cannot, and their simpler coding work is also more easily replaced by AI. So we’ll see fewer junior dev jobs, but seniors might do fine. I’m not sure that’s good news for the profession as a whole, but its been an extremely long gold rush into software and online services so some correction isn’t going to be the end of the trade.

      Oh and yes senior devs are still hounded to use AI, because it will get them further, faster. And there are no more junior devs to help.

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      • dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Code is the easiest thing as a dev. AI wont help me because Im already a good coder. Its the interconnectedness vetween services, dependencies in ownership (who do I talk to when a gateway error occurs vs a a 401 or 403 etc)

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      • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

        A good developer learns the tools that are available and uses them appropriately. A bad developer refuses to learn new tools and will be replaced by someone who already did.

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      • aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        The problems in software still remain the same though:

        (1) Bureaucracy

        (2) Needless process

        (3) Pointy headed managers

        (4) Siloed teams

        (5) Product people who have no idea what they want to build

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  • jonathan7luke@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    For the FAANG companies, they do it in part so they can then turn around and make those flashy claims you see in headlines like “95% of ours devs use [insert AI product they are trying to sell] daily” or “60% of our code base is now ‘written’ by our fancy AI”.

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  • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    These scummy fucks even put it as a requirement in job descriptions these days

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    • floofloof@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      What even is the requirement? “Must be able to ask a chatbot to do stuff”?

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    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      This is a red flag for corpo culture shenanigans. Dodge the bullet.

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  • floofloof@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “We were still required to find some ways to use AI. The one corporate AI integration that was available to us was the Copilot plugin to Microsoft Teams. So everyone was required to use that at least once a week. The director of engineering checked our usage and nagged about it frequently in team meetings.”

    The managerial idiocy is astounding.

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    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s pretty easy to set up a cron job to fire off some sort of bullshit LLM request a handful of times a day during working hours. Just set it and forget it.

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      • Evotech@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        You can even schedule it within copilot

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      • tias@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Not when you have to do SAML authentication to get a token for your AD account first.

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      • acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        you could probably even get copilot to write it!

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  • Septimaeus@infosec.pub ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’ll admit, some tools and automation are hugely improved with new ML smarts, but nothing feels dumber than finding problems that fit the boss’s solution.

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    • tyler@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Like what?

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      • Septimaeus@infosec.pub ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        For example the tools for the really tedious stuff, like large codebase refactoring for style keeping and naming convention adherence, those tools have become a lot more powerful than what I remember from a decade ago.

        While I’ve only experimented a little with some the more explicitly generative LLM-based coding assistant plugins, I was impressed (and a little spooked) at how good they often were at guessing what I was doing way before I finished doing it.

        I haven’t used the prompt-based LLMs at all, but I’ve watched nearby devs use them for stuff like manipulating a bunch of files in a repeated pattern, breaking up a spaghetti method into reusable functions, or giving a descriptive overview of some gnarly undocumented legacy code. They seem pretty useful, but I don’t think I’ll be able to use them fluidly until I can host them locally.

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      • assaultpotato@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        claude performs acceptably at repetitive tasks when I have an existing pattern for it to follow. “Replicate PR 123, but to add support for object Bar instead of Foo”. If I get some of this busy work in my queue I typically just have claude do it while I’m in a meeting.

        I’d never let it do refactors or design work, but as a code generation tool that can use existing code as a template, it’s useful. I wouldn’t pay an arm and a leg for it, but burning $2 while I’m in a meeting to kill chore tasks is worth it to me.

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  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Then unionize!

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    • Forbo@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      www.iww.org

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    • devfuuu@lemmy.world [bot] ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Unions is not really a concept that is available to devs. At least around here.

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      • Forbo@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I just attended an organizer training, and 70% of the people there were devs. Don’t believe the corporate bullshit, unions are for everyone.

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      • ulterno@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        No need to unionise when you have the power to make a startup.

        But then first you need the power and ability to make a startup.

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    • phil@lymme.dynv6.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      A bit of patience, the burst of that bubble comes… (forbes.com/…/ai-bubble-may-pop---wiping-out-40-tr…)

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      • brianpeiris@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I’d like the bubble to be true so that we can move past this nonsense phase, and it may well be true, but I could also see it being extended for years potentially, since there’s so much money being pumped into it, and governments are also buying into the hype.

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      • floofloof@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        And it won’t be the rich that get hurt when the AI bubble bursts. It will be us.

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  • brsrklf@jlai.lu ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Nothing tells that AI is a clever use of your ressources like making a mandatory AI query quota for your employees, and having them struggle to find anything it’s good at and failing.

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    • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      So, it’s a DAI requirement

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