Will AI replace Software Engineers? Do not hold your breath
This work clarifies misconceptions about AI's impact on the software industry, highlighting limitations for professionals and policymakers.
The paper addresses the conjecture that AI, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), will replace software engineers by arguing that software engineering involves more than just code generation, such as maintaining large software and ensuring reliability, which LLMs currently cannot do.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology such as Large Language Models (LLMs) have become extremely popular in creating code. This has led to the conjecture that future software jobs will be exclusively conducted by LLMs, and the software industry will cease to exist. But software engineering is much more than producing code -- notably, \emph{maintaining} large software and keeping it reliable is a major part of software engineering, which LLMs are not yet capable of.