{"id":97091,"date":"2026-05-14T12:17:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=97091"},"modified":"2026-05-14T12:21:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:21:24","slug":"big-tech-developers-say-ai-is-eroding-their-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/big-tech-developers-say-ai-is-eroding-their-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Tech developers say AI is eroding their skills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Developers at large technology firms have grown disillusioned with using artificial intelligence for programming and complain of skill loss, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/software-developers-say-ai-is-rotting-their-brains\/\">404media<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Coders say AI-generated code often contains errors. Reviewing and fixing it can take longer than writing from scratch.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;We are being forced to use AI agents to make sweeping changes across the entire codebase. Assessing the quality and safety of that volume is simply impossible, especially given that hundreds of programmers are doing the same thing,&#8221; said a <span data-descr=\"User experience \u2014 user experience\" class=\"old_tooltip\">UX<\/span> designer at a technology company.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The expert added that the team is accruing &#8220;a pile of technical debt&#8221; that will be impossible to untangle once models become prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n<p>Tech executives are eager to tout the share of code generated by AI:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In April, Google <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/google-ai-generated-code-75-gemini-agents-software-2026-4\">said<\/a> 75%;<\/li>\n<li>in 2025, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/04\/29\/satya-nadella-says-as-much-as-30percent-of-microsoft-code-is-written-by-ai.html\">put it at<\/a> 30%;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/anthropic-cfo-white-collar-jobs-changed-execution-oversight-2026-5\">Anthropic \u2014 90%<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li>Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dwarkesh.com\/p\/mark-zuckerberg-2\">predicted<\/a> that within 12\u201318 months neural networks will write most of the code that improves AI itself;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Meanwhile, industry-wide layoffs continue \u2014 companies cite automation and cost-cutting.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The boost never came<\/h2>\n<p>404media writes that &#8220;the huge productivity leap delivered by artificial intelligence&#8221; has not led to more or better product.<\/p>\n<p>Developers deny that AI helps them at work \u2014 yet they are required to integrate it into their workflows.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Using an <span data-descr=\"large language model\" class=\"old_tooltip\">LLM<\/span> in one form or another is a mandatory requirement. Its use is part of performance evaluation criteria. We are literally being flooded with AI tools, and the answer to any problem is to &#8216;try artificial intelligence first&#8217;,&#8221; said a programmer at one of the <span data-descr=\"an acronym denoting the five most popular and influential US technology companies: Meta (formerly Facebook), Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (Alphabet)\" class=\"old_tooltip\">FAANG<\/span> companies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Because performance reviews are tied to adopting the technology, most developers use AI &#8220;to tick a box&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>An engineer at a fintech company said using LLMs is not mandatory but encouraged: developers are given access to Cursor.<\/p>\n<p>A programmer at a small web-design firm stressed that AI assistants in the <span data-descr=\"a suite of software tools that programmers use to create software\" class=\"old_tooltip\">IDE<\/span> have not boosted productivity \u2014 the code contains errors and every line has to be rechecked.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Another developer works with me on contract. He generates huge volumes of code, leaving me with more than 1,000 lines of pull requests to review, and that takes a tremendous amount of time. As a result, I feel more tired and burned out than at any time in my life,&#8221; the engineer said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A coder in fintech added that AI can generate more code than the team can review or explain.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;As a result, you either throw it away or ship it, fearing there may be elements of very low quality,&#8221; he explained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">AI is useful, sometimes<\/h2>\n<p>Developers concede that AI does handle some tasks \u2014 for instance, quickly assembling prototypes and implementing solutions in unfamiliar domains.<\/p>\n<p>One engineer said LLMs are handy with large volumes of information: they find where a request is handled on the server, summarise data from logs and help search documentation on code changes.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Skills are deteriorating<\/h2>\n<p>As AI embeds deeper into workflows, developers are losing skills honed over years. Researchers call this phenomenon &#8220;cognitive debt&#8221; or &#8220;cognitive atrophy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>A programmer at a small web-design company said he once could not remember how to implement an <span data-descr=\"application programming interface\" class=\"old_tooltip\">API<\/span> in Laravel \u2014 and it &#8220;scared me to death&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;It is like when mobile phones arrived and we stopped memorising numbers. For me it has grown into outsourcing the thinking process. My critical thinking and ability to sit down and think through a problem or a project have deteriorated,&#8221; commented a software developer in finance.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">AI is here to stay<\/h2>\n<p>Most engineers agree that large language models will remain and continue to play a role in programming. The question is how the industry will cope with management&#8217;s current obsession with the technology, particularly when training new generations of developers.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;We are hiring junior programmers who rely on AI to perform the simplest tasks. They do not have the knowledge or experience to recognise when the outputs of neural networks contain errors or are inefficient,&#8221; said the UX designer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In August 2025, Coinbase <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/coinbase-dismisses-programmers-who-rejected-ai-integration\">fired<\/a> programmers who refused to use artificial intelligence in their work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Developers at large tech companies have grown disillusioned with AI for coding and complain of skill loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Big Tech developers say AI degrades skills and bloats code, with little productivity gain.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,1138,2425],"class_list":["post-97091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-opinions","tag-vibe-coding"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"7","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Big Tech developers say AI degrades skills and bloats code, with little productivity gain.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97093,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97091\/revisions\/97093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}