Season , Episode •
AI Augmentation
GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI coding assistants are now part of most engineers' daily workflows. But how are these tools really changing our work? Are we becoming more productive, or just faster at being wrong?
James and Matthew discuss their experiences with AI pair programming, the skills that matter more than ever, and what it means to be a software engineer in an AI-augmented world.
Topics Discussed
- Real-world productivity gains (and losses) from AI coding tools
- The shift from "writing code" to "reviewing code"
- Skills that become more valuable with AI assistance
- Debugging AI-generated code: new challenges
- How hiring and interviewing might need to evolve
- The ethics of AI-assisted development
Key Insights
"AI doesn't replace judgment. If anything, it makes good judgment more valuable because you're making more decisions per hour than you ever did before." — James Wilson
Mentioned Tools
- GitHub Copilot - Code completion and generation
- ChatGPT/Claude - General-purpose AI assistants
- Cursor - AI-first code editor
- Continue.dev - Open source coding assistant
Show Notes
- GitHub Copilot - AI pair programmer
- Claude by Anthropic - AI assistant
- Research: "The Impact of AI on Developer Productivity"
- Matthew's AI reading list - Generative AI risks and opportunities