OpenAI CEO Altman Says AI Will Lead To Fewer Software Engineers

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes companies will eventually need fewer software engineers as AI continues to transform programming. 'Each software engineer will just do much, much more for a while. And then at some point, yeah, maybe we do need less software engineers,' Altman told Stratechery.

AI now handles over 50% of code authorship in many companies, Altman estimated, a significant shift that's happened rapidly as large language models have improved. The real paradigm shift is still coming, he said. 'The big thing I think will come with agentic coding, which no one's doing for real yet,' Altman said, suggesting that the next breakthrough will be AI systems that can independently tackle larger programming tasks with minimal human guidance.

While OpenAI continues hiring engineers for now, Altman recommended that high school graduates entering the workforce 'get really good at using AI tools,' calling it the modern equivalent of learning to code. 'When I was graduating as a senior from high school, the obvious tactical thing was get really good at coding. And this is the new version of that,' he said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.