Everybody is a programmer

The advent of generative AI promises to close the technology gap between programmers and non-programmers. What are the implications for the future of work?

Published

January 5th, 2025

1 Should one learn how to program nowadays?

  • For those appreciating the craft… Yes
  • For those who want to be more productive… Undoubtedly up to recent years, yes.
  • What about today?

2 Everybody is a programmer

Figure 1: Everybody is a programmer (Jensen Huang; World Governments Summit, 2024).

3 Impact of Generative AI on Productivity

Cui et al. (2024) studied the impact of generative AI on productivity.

4 Who benefits the most?

Cui et al. (2024) studied the impact of generative AI on productivity.

5 How should we interpret the results?

  • Are pull requests, commits, and builds accurate proxies for productivity?
  • Why do senior developers have less pronounced effects?
  • What does this imply for people learning to code?

References

Cui, Zheyuan, Mert Demirer, Sonia Jaffe, Leon Musolff, Sida Peng, and Tobias Salz. 2024. “The Effects of Generative AI on High Skilled Work: Evidence from Three Field Experiments with Software Developers.” SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4945566.