Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has a straightforward message for the world’s software engineers: the era of “writing code” line by line is officially over. According to a Short posted recently by Special Competitive Studies Project on YouTube, the tech veteran declared in an industry conference that a “major change” hit the industry late last year, driven by the explosive power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Schmidt argued that any programmer still using traditional methods is already behind the curve.
‘Welcome to being 20’
Reflecting on his own start in the industry, Schmidt said he once felt like the “hottest thing ever” when he was 20 and writing code manually. However, he says the capabilities of modern AI systems have completely changed his perspective.“If you’re writing code in any traditional way: stop. It’s over. They [engineers] have gone from writing code, which is what I did, and I thought I was the hottest thing ever when I was like 20. I’m sure that wasn’t true but – welcome to being 20 – now having this kind of power. I’ve watched what these systems can do, and it blows me away.”He urged managers to challenge their teams, suggesting they should ask their staff: “Why are you still writing code the way you did it six months ago?”
Schmidt talks about productivity explosion
The shift isn’t just about how people work; it’s about how much they can get done. Schmidt pointed out that software productivity – long a bottleneck for the global economy – is about to skyrocket. This change will allow individuals to build “incredibly powerful applications” that previously would have required large teams of engineers.“So, we have a major, major change happening. This started about October of last year. It’s new for this conference, and if you’re writing code in any traditional way, stop right, it’s over. And go. If you manage a company and you have software engineers, say, why are you still writing code code the way you did it six months ago?” he added.According to Schmidt, investors are beginning to fear that many current software products could become obsolete as AI makes them easier to replace or rebuild from scratch. He said that companies must adapt quickly to survive.
