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AI Coding Boom Risks Programmer Skills and Software Quality Decline

Exploring AI's impact on programming competence and future risks

From Hacker News Original Article Hacker News Discussion

AI is increasingly capable of writing working code, but this shift risks lowering programmer expertise and causing long-term stagnation in software quality and innovation.

Why it matters: Relying on AI-generated code may reduce programmers' deep understanding and problem-solving skills over time.

The stakes: Software could become less secure, less performant, and more prone to bugs due to superficial trust in AI outputs.

The big picture: As AI usage grows, programming might shift from craftsmanship to just producing "good enough" code, risking intellectual stagnation.

Commenters say: Many echo concerns about over-trusting AI, stressing the difference between code that "appears to work" versus truly reliable, well-tested software.