Which professions are threatened by ChatGPT? Will ChatGPT replace developers?
In December 2022, a tool appeared that made many professionals shudder: ChatGPT. First of all, because it’s free (at first), accessible to the general public and very easy to use. Also, its ability to communicate like a real human being amazes every user.
ChatGPT can write a LinkedIn post as easily as identifying code bugs or coding an application. Yes, yes, you heard me right. Maybe that’s why many are worried about ChatGPT’s impact on the developer profession.
Rest assured, you’re not the only one who feels helpless when faced with this tool that supposedly knows how to do everything. This fear is even greater among young people in the process of choosing a career path, or those undergoing professional retraining, who no longer dare to take up the profession of IT developer, for fear of making the wrong choice and finding themselves out of a job.
So, the question is: do developers still have a place in this far too advanced world? You’ve come to the right place, and that’s what this article is all about. Spoiler alert: the developer profession is far from disappearing!
What is ChatGPT?
Before getting to the nitty-gritty of the subject, we need to understand this technology, which seems to be threatening the profession of developers.
ChatGPT is a model of conversational intelligence, capable of chatting with you like a human, regardless of your level of technicality. It was created and developed by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research company founded in 2015 by tech greats Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba, and John Schulman. OpenIA’s stated aim is to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of mankind (to be put into perspective, depending on usage).
The name ChatGPT comes from the combination of the terms “chat”, meaning “conversation”, and ‘GPT’, meaning “predictive language transduction model”. ChatGPT is therefore based on an architecture known as GPT (pre-trained generative transformer). Four generations of GPT exist: today, ChatGPT is based on the GPT-4 architecture.
But how does GPT artificial intelligence work?
This famous GPT is based on a neural network system. We’ll explain.
ChatGPT is an IT tool that generates coherent content (text, images, or computer code) in response to a supplied text. To do this, this tool was confronted with a large volume of data (very large), which enabled it to learn how to arrange words correctly.
But GPT technology goes further. It uses “transformer” technology, a fairly innovative type of neural network architecture, “the latest great advance in the field”, enabling the machine to “recognize the importance of words in the context according to the word under consideration”.
TO SUM UP: Hard to explain in a few lines. To find out more, we recommend you read this study, ChatGPT: A Breakthrough in Conversational AI.
We’re interested in ChatGPT’s real impact on your future life as a developer!
Why is ChatGPT a threat to developers? What is its impact?
There are a number of reasons why developers (especially younger ones) worry about the place ChatGPT is taking and will take in their careers. In a way, they’re right. ChatGPT has turned the developer profession (and so many other professions) on its head. But this doesn’t mean that the developer profession is going to disappear – on the contrary, it’s adapting.
Let’s find out why ChatGPT represents (for some) more of a threat than an opportunity.
First of all, ChatGPT has the power to produce code, which is the very essence of the business. For example:
- ChatGPT is capable of writing the code for an application
- ChatGPT is capable of providing examples of source code
- ChatGPT is capable of explaining code produced by other developers
As such, ChatGPT can replace specific tasks/assignments inherent to the developer’s profession, notably those that are automatable, basic and repetitive.
What’s more, the growing use of ChatGPT and other similar tools may lead to competition in the web development market.
ChatGPT and new AIs such as Copilot (Microsoft Copilot, Github copilot) are inevitably changing the dev profession, because these are new tools that need to be taken into account, and which are shaking up the world in general.
Indeed, ChatGPT allows more people to understand and master computer languages. Is this a bad thing? No. Except that, more than before, developers need to acquire new skills and master new technological advances.
Finally, developers who use ChatGPT excessively may become dependent on it and regress. This is a risky bet for their professional development. It’s important to keep a firm grip on technological tools.
Let’s look at ChatGPT’s positive impacts (because, yes, they do exist)!
Why won’t ChatGPT technology replace developers?
Who has enabled and continues to enable these different tools to see the light of day and evolve? Developers!
Don’t forget that a machine is first and foremost the work of computer scientists, capable of feeling, thinking, and creating. Even if fantasies about artificial intelligence lead you to believe that a machine will become more intelligent than man, it’s not in the cards yet.
AI will never be able to replace the work of developers. On the one hand, because it takes devs to create and nurture ChatGPT, Kevin Dewalt reassures us.
Here are some other reasons that will reassure you:
- ChatGPT is lagging behind the latest technological advances (latest tool versions, new methods, R&D…). But you do! As a developer, you’ll learn to keep your knowledge up to date, innovate, and test, something ChatGPT can’t do without you.
- ChatGPT is a highly operational tool, allowing developers to offload time-consuming tasks and concentrate on more interesting and specialized tasks: optimizations, new functionalities…
- Last but not least, who else but the developers can understand and use the code produced by ChatGPT? You can. So we need you!
ChatGPT, a partner for developers
ChatGPT has the power to accompany you in your job as a developer and make your life easier. Instead of seeing it as a competitor, think of it as an ally. It can explain why your code is wrong, suggest approaches to bug resolution, and provide you with code snippets for everyday tasks.
ChatGPT is a real ally when it comes to learning to code. Here are its two significant advantages:
- Time-saving: If you see it as an assistant, ChatGPT can provide you with quick information in programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, and PHP. But it can also help you resolve bugs, synthesize information, “clean up” your code, etc.
- Increased efficiency: ChatGPT enables web developers to automate network security analysis or incident response tasks.
ChatGPT is a tool that will make you a better developer, as long as you understand its limitations!
Embrace the Future, Don’t Fear It
While tools like ChatGPT are transforming the landscape of development, they are far from replacing the ingenuity, creativity, and problem-solving skills that real developers bring to the table. Rather than viewing AI as a threat, we should see it as a valuable assistant, one that helps us focus on the complex, meaningful aspects of our work.
At BluDeskSoft, we embrace these technological advancements as part of our commitment to building future-proof, high-performance digital solutions. By combining human expertise with cutting-edge tools, we continue to deliver web development services that are secure, scalable, and tailored to our clients’ long-term success. Because behind every great AI… there’s an even greater developer.