Good luck telling a bunch of programmers that their skills are legitimately under threat. No one wants to hear that. Especially when you are living a top 10% lifestyle on the back of being good at communicating to computers.
There is an old documentary of the final days of typesetters for newspapers. These were the (very skilled) people who rapidly put each individual carved steel character block into the printing frame in order print thousands of page copies. Many were incredulous that a machine could ever replicate their work.
I don't think programmers are going to go away, but I do think those juicy salaries and compensation packages will.
At least for now it seems more like a multiplier that wouldn't reduce the amount of work out there, possibly even increase demand in certain cases as digitisation becomes easier so projects that weren't worth to do before will be now and more complicated usecases will open up as well.
So same programmer with the same 8h of workday will be able to output more value.
The documentary he's referring to is likely "Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu," released in 1980. It chronicles the last day of hot metal typesetting at The New York Times before they transitioned to newer technology. The title comes from the nonsense phrase "etaoin shrdlu," which appeared frequently in Linotype machine errors due to the way the keys were arranged. The documentary provides a fascinating look at the end of an era in newspaper production.
There is an old documentary of the final days of typesetters for newspapers. These were the (very skilled) people who rapidly put each individual carved steel character block into the printing frame in order print thousands of page copies. Many were incredulous that a machine could ever replicate their work.
I don't think programmers are going to go away, but I do think those juicy salaries and compensation packages will.