A few days ago, a reader of my blog sent me a message:

“Hi Erich, I am reading you since a lot of years. I think you are a pillar of my professional career. Thanks for this. Let me ask you now: what do you think about LLM and coding with LLM in embedded? My employer thinks it time to stop to hire people, because in 1/2 years everything will be substituted by AI. I am not on the same page. Are you using LLM for coding? What do you think about it? Thanks in advance.”

TL;DR: LLMs are changing and improving, making good engineering and education even more important. Studies show that AI can be useful, but productivity will not always increase. AI coding means more critical thinking and responsibility, not less. Engineering and education needs to adopt and change. This includes assessments and didactic, back to paper and defending the work. Learning how to learn is getting the critical skill in the age of AI.

In this article I’ll have collected my thoughts and observations.