Code: AI or Humans, vs Humans and AI ?

Ryan Dahl on X: "This has been said a thousand times before, but allow me to add my own voice: the era of humans writing code is over. Disturbing for those of us who identify as SWEs, but no less true. That's not to say SWEs don't have work to do, but writing syntax directly is not it." / X

My take is quite different:

• When computers ware created, simple and slow, humans did write binary/hex code "by hand".
  The result was still worth it, much faster calculations that "by hand".
  Even Microsoft creators did that, current $4T empire is started that way believe or not.
  
  
• When computers become more capable, we invented assembly and higher level languages. 
  Nobody was missing writing assembly code when C compiler was able to generate almost as good or even better machine code.
  
  
• When Python, C++ and Java and other "higher level" languages become available, C was still relevant for optimizations, but common tasks are delegated to interpreters, compilers, VMs etc.
  We just got more productive
  
  
• On UI side, we can hand-code every div and CSS and other, or we can re-use components, more optimal "lego blocks"
  
  
• AI code gen is one-level-up (from current code). Like C++ is to C. Not a big deal for humans, just one more step in levels of abstractions. We will just become much more productive.
  
  

 “The Era of Humans Writing Code is Over”: Why Ryan Dahl is Right | by Nisal Renuja Palliyaguru | Jan, 2026 | Medium

Ryan Dahl needs no introduction to the tech world. As the creator of Node.js and Deno, he is a true legend in the industry. Recently, however, a post he made on X (formerly Twitter) has sparked a massive debate within the global tech community.

“The era of humans writing code is over.”

As Software Engineers (SWEs) hearing this triggers an immediate, somewhat “disturbing” reaction. It strikes at the core of our identity. However, if we put emotions aside and look at this purely through a technical lens there is a profound truth in what Ryan is saying.

And this is view for a current prominent maintainer of node.js and other projects, Matteo Collina

I agree 100%  

The Future of the Software Engineering Career

Fundamentals Matter Again

"For the past decade, the industry focused on rapid delivery to employment. Learn React in twelve weeks. Build a portfolio. Get hired. Figure out the rest on the job.

That worked when companies needed bodies to type code. When the bottleneck was implementation speed, you could learn just enough to be useful and pick up the deeper knowledge later.

That world is gone.

When AI can implement features faster than any junior developer, what becomes valuable is the judgment to know whether the implementation is correct. And judgment requires understanding.

Algorithms. Distributed systems. Hardware architectures. Cache management techniques. Networking fundamentals. Database internals. These aren't academic exercises anymore. They're the foundation for evaluating AI-generated code."