Simon Willison — 2026-06-14#

Highlight#

Today’s highlight is a thoughtful commentary on the ongoing debate around AI replacing software engineers. Drawing on an essay by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, Simon highlights why the real value of a developer lies in deep systemic understanding rather than just generating lines of code.

Posts#

Why AI hasn’t replaced software engineers, and won’t · Source Simon highlights an essay by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kappor that pushes back against the narrative of mass AI-driven layoffs in tech. They point to hard data—like zero New York WARN Act filings checking the newly added “AI” box over a full year—to demonstrate that developers are heavily cushioned from displacement. The authors argue that while AI accelerates the actual typing of code, the true bottlenecks of software engineering are specifying what to build, verifying the delivery, and applying deep context. Simon echoes this from his own workflow, noting that while LLMs help him decide and verify, his ultimate value remains anchored in his “deep human understanding” of both the underlying problems and the agent-built solutions.

Project Pulse#

Today’s update steps back from hands-on CLI tools and Datasette releases to focus on the broader socioeconomic realities of generative AI capabilities and developer job security.