# The Great Programmer Purge: How AI Is Taking Over the Tech Workforce

> TL;DR: AI-generated code outperforms lazy programmers. Software jobs are declining, but centaurs will survive.

Today, a friend of mine shared his frustration about being asked to fill out a registration form requiring a username and password.

The system was poorly designed and demanded a secure password without telling him what the issue was.

![Message Box](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1741737161713/53fe48fa-07d6-4b13-b57c-14ba7269c260.png align="center")

This is a clear example of terrible UX and a lazy programmer unaware of writing error messages with empathy.

%[https://maximilianocontieri.com/code-smell-97-error-messages-without-empathy]

I told my friend this is unacceptable in today’s world since all AIs can easily solve such problems.

I took my phone and said, L.M.P.T.F.Y (Let Me Prompt That For You), the modern equivalent to [LMGTFY](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/LMGTFY).

I quickly wrote a prompt:

> Give me the code for a secure password validation site with helpful error messages when the user enters a weak password.

The A.I. successfully provided a working page with this code:

%[https://gist.github.com/mcsee/a7121f5432acbacff39d4aad8efab92a]

You can also try it yourself:

- [ChatGPT](https://chat.openai.com/?q=Give%20me%20the%20code%20for%20a%20secure%20password%20validation%20site%20with%20helpful%20error%20messages%20when%20the%20user%20enters%20a%20weak%20password.)

- [Claude](https://claude.ai/new?q==Give%20me%20the%20code%20for%20a%20secure%20password%20validation%20site%20with%20helpful%20error%20messages%20when%20the%20user%20enters%20a%20weak%20password.)

- [Perplexity](https://www.perplexity.ai/?q=Give%20me%20the%20code%20for%20a%20secure%20password%20validation%20site%20with%20helpful%20error%20messages%20when%20the%20user%20enters%20a%20weak%20password.)

- [Copilot](https://www.bing.com/chat?showconv=1&sendquery=1&q=Give%20me%20the%20code%20for%20a%20secure%20password%20validation%20site%20with%20helpful%20error%20messages%20when%20the%20user%20enters%20a%20weak%20password.)

- [Gemini](https://gemini.google.com/)

- [DeepSeek](https://chat.deepseek.com/)

- [Meta AI](https://www.meta.ai/)

- [Qwen](https://chat.qwen.ai/)

# The Bad News

The AI-generated solution with helpful error messages is bad news for lazy programmers.

Software development jobs are already declining, and this trend is expected to continue:

%[https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/software-engineering-job-openings] 

This is something many people have been forecasting.

I wrote an article five years ago during the last [AI Winter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter) predicting this will happen.

%[https://blog.devgenius.io/most-programmers-are-losing-our-jobs-very-soon-cd5c0770bbec] 

As the great Niels Bohr once [said](https://maximilianocontieri.com/software-engineering-great-quotes):

> Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

![Trump](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1741737204356/d3383466-2c78-4d2c-bd9c-0bd3e2d610d4.jpeg align="center")

Now, it’s clear: lazy programmers are doomed!

# The Good News

What can we do as software engineers besides writing crapy code?

##  Give Up

![Chores](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1741738140481/c4a74a8b-e2af-4e7d-ad29-b4dd3fd49373.webp align="center")

## Explore Other Careers

Soon, there will be a shortage of handy people such as electricians, plumbers, and painters.

%[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU-XfZgQIVw] 

## We can improve ourselves by becoming centaurs.

A.I. won't take your job. A developer mastering AI tools will.

I write biweekly articles about [clean code](https://maximilianocontieri.com/how-to-find-the-stinky-parts-of-your-code), [refactoring](https://maximilianocontieri.com/how-to-improve-your-code-with-easy-refactorings), and programming.

In these articles, you can compare the output of many AIs with and without guidance.

For example, the above code has several problems unnoticed by AIs:

%[https://maximilianocontieri.com/code-smell-151-commented-code]

%[https://maximilianocontieri.com/code-smell-03-functions-are-too-long]

Humans remain invaluable when they know how to harness AI effectively.

Here's a video benchmarking some tools:

%[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99GuXTIW0R4] 

# Conclusion

Hopefully, my friend will soon complete the password form- or better yet developers will deprecate all passwords.

Also Hopefully, I hope you’ll write solutions like these and get paid as a "Centaur"—a developer who masters AI tools to enhance their craft.