[akra]

That's kinda obvious that's their goal especially with the current focus on coding of most of the AI labs in most announcements - it may be augmentation now but that isn't the end game. Everything else these AI labs do, while fun seems like at most a "meme" to most people in relative terms.

Most Copilot style setup's (not just in this domain) are designed to gather data and train/gather feedback before full automation or downsizing. If they outright said it they may not have got the initial usage needed to do so from developers. Even if it is augmentation it feels like at least to me the other IT roles (e.g. BA's, Solution Engineers maybe?) are safer than SWE's going forward. Maybe its because dev's have a skin in the game and without AI its not that easy of a job over time makes it harder for them to see. Respect for SWE as a job in general has fallen in at least my anecdotal conversations mainly due to AI - after all long term career prospects are a major factor in career value, social status and personal goals for most people.

Their end goal is to democratize/commoditize programming with AI as low hanging fruit which by definition reduces its value per unit of output. The fact that there is so much discussion on this IMO shows that many even if they don't want to admit it there is a decent chance that they will succeed at this goal.

[wolvesechoes]

Their end goal is to democratize

Stop repeating their bullshit. It is never about democratizing. If it was, they would start teaching everyone how to program, the same way we started to teach everyone how to read and write not that long ago.

[akra]

Many tech companies and/or training places did try to though didn't they? I know they do boot camps, coding classes in schools and a whole bunch of other initiatives to get people into the industry. Teaching kids and adults coding skills has been attempted; the issue is more IMO that not everyone has the interest and/or aptitude to continue with it. The problem is that there's parts of the industry/job that aren't actually easy to teach (note not all of it); can be quite stressful and require constant keeping up - IMO if you don't love it you won't stick with it. As software demand grows, despite the high salaries (particularly in the US) and training, supply didn't keep up with demand till recently.

In any case I'm not saying I think they will achieve it, or achieve it soon - I don't have that foresight. I'm just elaborating on their implied stated goals; they don't state them directly but reading their announcements on their models, code tools, etc that's IMO their implied end game. Anthrophic recently announced statistics that most of their model usage is for coding. Thinking it is just augmentation doesn't justify the money IMO put into these companies by VC's, funds, etc - they are looking for bigger payoffs than that remembering that many of these AI companies aren't breaking even yet.

I was replying the the parent comment - augmentation and/or copilots don't seem to be their end game/goal. Whether they are actually successful is another story.