I want to talk not specifically about SO, but about all websites like it.

We had, have, and will continue to have sites like SO. Why? IMHO:

1. We always need teachers to tell us what is "good" and what is "bad."
2. We need a way to acquire new knowledge.

As far as I understand, the current mechanism for training AI creates a "knowledge loop." Since AI outputs combined data from old sources, it generally doesn't produce truly new data—yet the AI will continue to learn from its own generated content. Because of this, I’m sure that real humans are needed to contribute original data that hasn't been discovered or documented before.

There will always be business-specific problems that haven't been solved yet, or solutions that exist but aren't open source. How will AI deal with that?

In one of my previous jobs, I had a task to create functionality that generated barcodes for 10,000 different items — complete with names, prices, and the ability to adjust almost every setting with a live preview. All of this had to be generated in under 10 seconds across Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Good luck asking an AI to architect that from scratch!

I’m not saying AI will never be able to handle tasks like this, the point is that human engineers are still necessary. We need to talk to each other, help each other, and add new knowledge to the "global database" so that others can eventually find those answers via AI.

On the other hand, it is probably a good thing that AI can answer basic questions. We don’t need a 100th thread on "how to deep clone an object" or "how to change a button color." This allows us to spend our time on more complex and interesting problems.

People almost always choose the easiest path. For example, a student will usually ask a teacher a question to get a quick, understandable answer because a teacher can provide tailored examples. Does that mean we don't need books or libraries anymore? Of course not!

The way we share information has simply evolved, and it will continue to do so. We shouldn’t be afraid of these changes, instead, platforms must evolve to adapt to them.

For me, SO is not dead. It is just becoming a more specialized hub for real engineers to tackle the complex tasks AI can't handle yet

I want to talk not specifically about SO, but about all websites like it.

We had, have, and will continue to have sites like SO. Why? IMHO:

1. We always need teachers to tell us what is "good" and what is "bad."
2. We need a way to acquire new knowledge.

As far as I understand, the current mechanism for training AI creates a "knowledge loop." Since AI outputs combined data from old sources, it generally doesn't produce truly new data — yet the AI will continue to learn from its own generated content. Because of this, I’m sure that real humans are needed to contribute original data that hasn't been discovered or documented before.

There will always be business-specific problems that haven't been solved yet, or solutions that exist but aren't open source. How will AI deal with that?

In one of my previous jobs, I had a task to create functionality that generated barcodes for 10,000 different items — complete with names, prices, and the ability to adjust almost every setting with a live preview. All of this had to be generated in under 10 seconds across Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Good luck asking an AI to architect that from scratch!

I’m not saying AI will never be able to handle tasks like this, the point is that human engineers are still necessary. We need to talk to each other, help each other, and add new knowledge to the "global database" so that others can eventually find those answers via AI.

On the other hand, it is probably a good thing that AI can answer basic questions. We don’t need a 100th thread on "how to deep clone an object" or "how to change a button color." This allows us to spend our time on more complex and interesting problems.

People almost always choose the easiest path. For example, a student will usually ask a teacher a question to get a quick, understandable answer because a teacher can provide tailored examples. Does that mean we don't need books or libraries anymore? Of course not!

The way we share information has simply evolved, and it will continue to do so. We shouldn’t be afraid of these changes, instead, platforms must evolve to adapt to them.

For me, SO is not dead. It is just becoming a more specialized hub for real engineers to tackle the complex tasks AI can't handle yet