Ask HN: Are developers who build libs and dev tools safer from AI replacement?

I’ve been thinking about AI and developer jobs.

It feels like developers who build libraries, frameworks, compilers, and dev tools might be safer from AI replacement compared to people building typical CRUD apps.

My intuition is that tooling work requires deeper systems knowledge and taste, while a lot of app-level code is becoming easier for AI to generate.

Am I wrong? Curious what others here think

2 points | by danver0 3 hours ago

1 comments

  • raw_anon_1111 2 hours ago
    Who is making money from selling tools and libraries and compilers? All of those are supported by BigCorp and given away for free.

    And who needs an abstraction layer like a framework?

    I’m not a web dev at all for instance and haven’t done web development in a decade. I was able to create a relatively feature filled internal web tool in less than a day using Codex-CLI. It didn’t use any frameworks just raw HTML.

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    • verdverm 2 hours ago
      Frameworks or libraries are about reusing the common stuff. If you want to make any serious app, you are going to use one or reimplement one. They have their feature set for reasons (mostly).