If AI Is Already Writing Code, Will Programmers Lose Their Jobs?

Artificial intelligence is coming to take people’s jobs.

According to one Oxford study, 47% of all jobs in the USA is likely to be automated by 2030. Even programmers — the people who actually build intelligent algorithms — can be replaced by the very technology they created. If AI can generate music, create art, and play chess, what stops it from writing code as well?

In fact, it’s already doing that.

What AI applications can write code?

Bayou is an AI application that uses deep learning to generate code by itself. It has been trained on open source Java code from Github. In a similar to Google search way, Bayou uses a few keywords to predict what program a software developer is writing and suggests the specific steps needed to complete it. The project is funded by Google and DARPA.

DeepCoder is another project in this area. Developed by Microsoft and Cambridge University researches, this AI app searches through a large code database to help programmers solve simple coding problems. For now, though, it can only build programs that consist of a few lines of code.

Ubisoft, a French game development company has also built a system that simplifies developers’ work. It’s called Commit…