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by rvz·27d ago·view on hn ↗
For the past 3 years, many software engineers were coping that AI (particularly LLMs) was only going after juniors. Given the documented history of mass layoffs related to AI from 2024 to today, it is clear that everyone including seniors and staff level folks are just as affected.

So let's just say, if your whole identity is for being a typical software engineer no matter the seniority and nothing else, perhaps it is time for you to reconsider options as of course 100% avoiding AI is futile at this point.

There will still be new jobs, but there will be no need for more excess people, even under Jevon's paradox. Software engineers were just the test bed for this and now there is an oversupply of SWEs without jobs in the market and will have to use AI tools like Kimi Work and Claude Cowork to be employable.

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I have never been more sure about the viable future of software engineering as a career than I am after experiencing everything all the way up to and including Fable.
Do you actually believe this and are concerned about it?
First of all to reply to your deleted comment, yes this is completely relevant to the article.

As token costs drop significantly (thanks to local models and hosted Chinese models.) employers will consider using cheaper models like Kimi Work and others, even if they are already using expensive ones like Claude Cowork. They won't be able to operate without it.

Secondly, do I actually believe this? Of course, I already said that there will be more mass layoffs because of AI years ago. [0]

So this outcome was expected.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42490692

Last year, not years ago