AI replaced a software engineer with 20 years of experience in the tech industry

Written by Susan Fourtané, Science and Technology Journalist

The promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was that it was designed to help humans with the monotonous, repetitive jobs so they could focus on more important tasks and also have more free time. AI was going to transform the future of work in a positive way.

The use of Artificial Intelligence was going to see companies creating new jobs that didn’t exist yet and these jobs were going to require more unique human skills such as creativity and critical thinking. Human jobs were going to require the use of soft skills.

That's the story we were told once and again and again. That’s the story I reported upon many times over the past 18 years. Yes, I have seen the evolution of this technology for almost two decades, indeed. And yes, I have been suffering the advances of AI in journalism and writing as well.

We have seen the most dramatic change during the last couple of years. The change was unexpected and it’s moving fast, faster than we thought it would.

There are now even more growing concerns about Artificial Intelligence (AI) replacing software engineers, even those with decades/life long experience. This is no longer a prediction. This is the reality we are living today. There are multiple reports telling how seasoned professionals have lost their jobs due to AI advancements.

Today, I read something that adds to a problem that no one can seem to see. Without a plan, AI is replacing humans in almost every industry I can think of, leaving people unemployed and with not too much to expect from the future.

The unthinkable happened: AI just replaced a software engineer with 20 years of experience in the technology industry.

His job was not changed or upgraded, as the conversation was several years ago when I interviewed several software engineers and futurists about the future of AI. What happened? Where is the plan for the Universal Basic Income that was supposed to be in place and ready for when people would start to lose their jobs?

I recently wrote about how Duolingo, an education software company, replaced its contract writers and translators with AI. They want more content faster. This is not the only company choosing an AI-first strategy. You can read about it here below:

We are no longer talking about automating monotonous tasks. We are talking about increasingly replacing humans, including software engineers.

Shawn K, a 42-year-old computer science graduate who is a creative full stack engineer specialising in AI, VR (Virtual Reality), and web technologies told Fortune in an interview that out of 800 job applications he got only 10 interviews. That was after his former boss outsourced his job to AI.

Most of his applications were filtered out by AI before a human got to see his application. Before losing his job and income, Shawn was well established in the industry, earning $150,000 a year, building technologies such as the Metaverse.

The once successful software engineer is now living in a small RV trailer in upstate New York, hustling to make ends meet, delivering food orders, and selling his old electronics and other stuff on eBay for a few hundred dollars a month.

Shawn’s story is not the only one. Here below is Shawn telling everyone whose job and/or job search has been impacted by AI to share their stories.

The old promise that AI was going to revolutionise work was true. Although it was not what it turned out to be. AI technology is not yet ready to go without humans. It’s been reported that 59 per cent of developers experience consistent deployment errors when using the help of AI to code.

Despite AI being able to handle some routine coding tasks, there are complex problem-solving, architectural design, and decision-making that require human expertise.

The tech labour market is changing; but it’s not the only one. AI is increasingly making humans obsolete. And there is no plan. There is no clear regulation. There are no clear answers as to how we will survive when a larger number of humans will lose their jobs to AI.