Older developers are down with the vibe coding vibe
- Reference: 1756423868
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/28/older_developers_ai_code/
- Source link:
According to a July [1]survey of 791 US developers from cloud services platform Fastly, around a third of senior developers with more than a decade of experience are using AI code-generation tools such as Copilot, Claude, and Gemini to produce over half of their finished software, compared to 13 percent for those devs who've only been on the job for up to two years.
Austin Spires, senior director of developer engagement at Fastly, explained to The Register that the difference doesn’t necessarily mean older coders are slacking off. It's more a reflection of the demands on a senior developer’s day.
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"When you really zoom out and think about what a senior engineer does, they don't write code all day," he explained. "So if there's ways that people can test autonomously or move really quickly to get a prototype out that kind of hits, that visceral, fun dopamine hit that made coding so fun in the beginning. That's why we're seeing the pattern from that research."
[3]
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In a way, seeing younger coders relying less on AI tools less was "heartening," he said, showing that those new to the field want to craft code the old-fashioned way. They appear to be looking at AI coding tools as handy, but not a replacement for baking your own software.
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A slight majority of older developers say AI tools help them ship software faster, although they do have to spend more time checking it for artificially developed bugs. By contrast, fewer than half of junior developers felt that way.
Spires speculates that this may be down to experience showing its benefits. Senior developers are more likely to be able to quickly scan code and spot flaws, whereas younger workers have a tougher time of software editing. Only 1.8 percent of respondents said they never use AI code generation tools.
Overall, over 70 percent of all developers questioned said that AI tools made their jobs more enjoyable, compared to less than 20 percent who said it made things harder. Over 30 percent of respondents said automatic coding made their work role "significantly more enjoyable."
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One other standout from the survey was the degree to which coders are considering the environmental impact of software they write. Among younger devs, barely half said they considered the energy costs of running new code, but that rose to 80 percent of older programmers. Nearly one in ten respondents admitted they didn’t know how much energy their software requires.
"There's not a lot of incentive for AI coding tools to disclose what the carbon footprint of these tools are," Spires said.
"More senior engineers understand the second and third effects of their code in how it relates to users and how it relates to their community. And I think it's just a matter of time before junior developers start to understand those ramifications a little bit further." ®
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[1] https://www.fastly.com/blog/senior-developers-ship-more-ai-code
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aLEl297OWsXPNMCfV7LakQAAARY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLEl297OWsXPNMCfV7LakQAAARY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aLEl297OWsXPNMCfV7LakQAAARY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/vivaldi_capo_doubles_down_on/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/uk_unions_want_worker_first/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/27/anthropic_security_report_flags_rogue/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/27/nx_npm_supply_chain_attack/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aLEl297OWsXPNMCfV7LakQAAARY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: But...isn't it all just bollocks?
If this trend towards AI-generated code is rotting the brains and capabilities of the younger developers, it can also interfere with the experience and wisdom of the more 'seasoned' hands.
"They" are reporting that oncologists, radiologists, etc. are rapidly losing the skills taught through years in medical school and practice to relying on the AI tools.
Greybeards of all types have some historic knowledge that is not hoovered up by the LLM robots. It will be a real pity to lose that.
Re: But...isn't it all just bollocks?
Er, no shit.
I can't fathom why El Reg has been so gushing about AI as of late.. So much for "Biting the hand that feeds IT".. It might be something to do with their new Californian owners.
There's an old adage: "Debugging code is at least twice as hard as writing it. Therefore if you write your code in the 'cleverest' way that you possibly can, then you will be incapable of debugging it". This is one reason why I have always hated long and inscrutable "code generation" pipelines, of which "AI" is an extension ad-absurdum.
If you really think that a stochastic blunderbuss full of other people's irrelevant ideas is going to hit your specialised/novel problem, then you are either a fool or a fraud. Supposing the former and it actually hits: What are you going to do when a bug comes in, the requirements change, the target gets smaller and it no longer works? Close your eyes, plug your ears, pay lots of money and hit rapid-fire?
Re: But...isn't it all just bollocks?
"stochastic blunderbuss full of other people's irrelevant ideas" - if it's possible to patent descriptions like that, you should absolutely do it. Or at least put it on a t-shirt.
#NoAI #UnplugAI
I am an older developer who is disgusted by what passes for AI (or fancy Machine Learning with bells & "blinken lights"). As a developer I will not use it to code, because it cannot be trusted. If I have to constantly spend time code reviewing AI, then I might as well have written the code myself from the start and enjoyed the creative exercise. This article sounds like a puff piece trying to swing public (developer) opinions in favour of AI. I think real developers who truly learned and love their craft will see it for the tripe it is.
The only thing AI is good for is comic relief.
> Only 1.8 percent of respondents said they never use AI code generation tools.
I have finally reached the heady heights of the 1%!
> So much for "Biting the hand that feeds IT"..
It's more like nuzzling these days.
But...isn't it all just bollocks?
As an old fart with over 30 years dev experience, for the longest time I was skeptical about AI getting involved in programming. Then I read an opinion piece by some redis developer or other and it persuaded me to give it a go. So I did, and for about an hour I was evangelical about how brilliant Google Gemini Pro was at helping me with my firmware development. Before I got a chance to hand over a wedge to Google, I learned the truth: it makes shit up, and tells you about it with absolute confidence. In fact the only skill the AI really has is contrition: it's very good at apologising for being total crap. It's like it has imposter syndrome, but realises it is genuinely incompetent.
We're doomed. Doomed!