- Sridhar Vembu urged coders to consider alternative livelihoods amid AI advancements
- Vembu highlighted AI's ability to build complex tools like a C compiler by Anthropic
- He shared a detailed discussion with Google's Gemini on AI's economic impact
Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu has sparked an online discussion about the future of IT workers, expecially those writing code as artificial intelligence (AI) models continue to break new barriers. Vembu was reacting to an X (formerly Twitter) user's post about developing a Bhagwat Gita app using AI without knowing a single line of code. He said it was time for those writing code, including him, to consider alternative livelihoods.
"The quoted post is a Bhagwad Gita app. Anthropic has built an entire C compiler with their Claude AI. That is not an easy engineering feat at all," wrote Vembu.
"At this point, it is best for those of us who depend on writing code for a living to start considering alternative livelihoods. I include myself in this. I don't say this in panic, but with calm acceptance and embrace," he added.
With the world rapidly changing, Vembu said he conducted a detailed conversation with Google's Gemini chatbot about how the global economy would function, shaped by the AI revolution. Vembu shared his session history with the chatbot, where he debated about the kind of society that would develop in a post-labour economy, in addition to challenging the AI model to critique its own work.
"It was like having an extremely intelligent economic philosopher debating you. I asked it to critique its own work and it did a fantastic job too."
Based on the conversation with the chatbot, Vembu pointed out that the future could unfold in two ways, depending on who owns and collects rent on this technology. While the optimistic version would have tech becoming a trivial part of human lives, allowing them to focus on life, family, soil, water, nature, art, music, culture, sports, festivals and faith, the pessimistic dystopian version led to 'centralised control'.
Check The Viral Post Here:
Social Media Reactions
As the post went viral, a section of social media users agreed with Vembu's assessment, while others pointed out that AI writing code was not the end of 'human ingenuity'.
"Coding agents are now far more capable than human programmers. However, the real question is when we will be ready to accept whatever they produce," said one user, while another added: "True sir.. It not only gives us more time to focus on other things it also gives people like me a way to realise long held dreams that I didn't get to work on."
A third commented: "There is a whole universe to explore out there. So many things to build. End of SaaS is not the end of human ingenuity."
A fourth said: "Centralised control is the default path because data and compute are the new rent. Unless we find a way to decentralise the ownership of these models, that optimist vision stays a luxury."
