Here's how AI assistants threaten Indian code factories

AI advances in code generation are reaching a level that will leave only oversight roles for humans

- SIDDHARTH PAI

Software programming involves two distinct efforts: first, an effort to write code that will 'compile'—in other words, it must be syntactically and logically accurate so that when it is run through its first tests on a computer, it does not result in an 'ab-end' or abnormal ending, thereby forcing the programmer to go back and look over the code again for, say, a missed comma that may have caused the ab-end. The first wave of AI coding assistants has become proficient at producing code that meets this standard, thanks to training on billions of code snippets that enabled them to learn the structural syntax of various programming languages. Ask an Indian software engineer what frightens them the most right now, and many will say Generative AI coding.

The second effort is to ensure that the entire set of programs being written for a business function (say, for accounts payable) performs the process without error. A syntactically perfect piece of code could still fail to do the job it was designed for. Even in the old manually intensive model, the real challenge lies in functional proficiency. One could make a perfectly molded phone cover for an iPhone while the requirement is for a Samsung device. The cover may be flawless, but it won't fit your handset.