AI is Removing the Middle Class of Software Engineering
Simon Willison · rss · 2026-08-12
In an essay, Florian Herrengt explores the structural impact of AI on software engineering, arguing that AI is removing the middle class of software engineering.
He paints a picture of growing "cognitive debt": teams facing convoluted systems built by AI where even original authors no longer understand data flows. When bugs occur, engineers turn to AI, which generates endless walls of highly confident but unverified text. This reliance creates bloated, unmaintainable projects where no one truly understands the underlying logic.
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