Who’s Telling the Story?
So apparently, the world is ending. Again.
Not from meteors, zombies, or a questionable TikTok challenge—but from AI. Yes, the machines are coming for your jobs, your thoughts, your souls... and possibly your cat.
But before you panic and start writing your farewell letter to humanity on a cave wall, let's take a step back and ask: who’s telling this story? And more importantly—why?
Bad News Is the Best Clickbait
Here’s a fun psychological fact: bad news grabs our attention ten times more than good news. Why? Because you generally don’t die from good news. “Man Enjoys Pleasant Day” doesn’t exactly trigger your fight-or-flight response, while “AI Replaces Everyone Except Billionaires” gets those cortisol levels pumping like a Black Friday stampede.
Fear sells. And when someone is selling you a story, maybe—just maybe—they’re also selling something else.
Enter the Doomsayer-in-Chief: Sam Altman
As an engineer, I find it particularly amusing when Sam Altman gets up on stage and proclaims, in his best tech-CEO-sage voice, “Software engineering is obsolete.”
Wow, Sam. Obsolete, you say? That’s a bold move, considering I just spent three hours debugging a mysterious CSS issue that only happens on Tuesdays in Firefox. If this is the beach life AI promised me, I must’ve missed the cabana service.
Sure, AI can whip up a slick Todo app UI faster than I can say “component library.” But the moment I try to wrangle it into solving real problems—like actual business logic or non-trivial architecture—it folds faster than a cheap lawn chair.
The Beach Isn’t That Comfortable Yet
Let me be clear: I tried to replace myself with AI. I really did. Margarita in hand, feet in the sand, IDE closed with dramatic flair. But five minutes later, I was back writing prototype code and mumbling “just one more edge case” like some caffeinated wizard.
And guess what? We’re still building Todo apps. Lots of them. Endless UIs. Auto-generated CRUD with a splash of Tailwind and a whisper of logic.
Follow the Money
So why is Sam saying the robots are coming to take our whiteboards?
Because he’s raising money. And nothing loosens investor wallets like the promise of apocalyptic market domination. "Invest now, before all the engineers are sipping drinks in Tahiti!" It’s a compelling pitch.
But remember: stories are told by storytellers. And in Silicon Valley, the best storytellers are often holding a pitch deck in one hand and a term sheet in the other.
TL;DR
AI is exciting, yes. Progress is real. But let’s not confuse a keynote speech with reality. If you’re an engineer, your job is probably safe—for now. And if you’re not, just know: the machines still can’t figure out why your Bluetooth won't connect.
So keep building, keep thinking, and most of all—keep asking:
Who’s telling the story, and what are they selling?
Darren Pegg is CTO at DataGPT - A Place to ask questions
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