Reflections on AI

Mike Cartmell — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 20:07:38 +1000

AI is going through a new phase at the moment. There’s still plenty of hype, but there’s more honest evaluation happening as well. Perhaps that’s a result of the reality-check of bills landing, in turn caused by the hastily revamped pricing models of LLM providers. Either way, it’s a good thing - and it’s led me to do some thinking as well.

It’s been a wild ride for GenAI, but for me personally it’s gone a bit like this: big initial enthusiasm, soured as usual by big-tech involvement and marketing hype. My decision to return to work was driven partly by the risk of not just my skills but my entire profession becoming obsolete - a desire to remain employed while I’m still employable. That’s still a possibility, but I’ve since taken a more optimistic outlook: AI is going to change software development, not make it obsolete, and has the potential to improve our productivity and capability in significant ways. It’s still very early in terms of understanding how to leverage AI to amplify human ability, and software engineers have an excellent opportunity now to build skills that will be lucrative in future.

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Reflections on AI