alt Hacker NewsIt’s worth looking at sectors where LLM code generation hasn’t been very visible, such as certification-accredited flight-control, braking, train-control, medical, or nuclear-control source code involving real-time embedded operating systems. This sector relies on assurance: deterministic scheduling requirements, detailed commit traceability, tool qualification, configuration management, independent verification, etc.
Since this is an area where failure can lead not to Instagram accounts getting hacked, but planes falling out of the sky and nuclear reactors spewing radioactive elements, it’s worth a close look. Some of the most visible companies in this sector include: QNX, Wind River, SYSGO, Lynx, Green Hills, Siemens Embedded, etc. None of them seem to have much if any adoption of LLMs for source code generation based on public statements.
Research in this area agrees with this view:
“In this paper, I have conducted a comparative analysis of the C++ code generated by popular LLMs including: OpenAI ChatGPT, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Meta AI, and Microsoft Copilot for compliance with MISRA C++. The study revealed that none of the evaluated LLMs generated MISRA-compliant code despite clear prompts, with DeepSeek showing the fewest violations and Meta AI the most.”
This study showed that people writing computer games had little interest in productivity tools (because they are producing something that is really used). But people who produce things that not really used are obsessed with productivity:
> the perennially unprofitable venture-backed startup, for which faux productivity is connected to the generally immaterial nature of its high valuations, versus the game studio that lives and dies by the profitability of its products.
> In a sector of the economy where "it's not about how much you earn, but about how much you're worth," the labors of the companies whose workflows are built on the kinds of productivity apps that today comprise nearly 40 percent of Product Hunt's output are not actually directed at the creation of a thing, but at the appearance of the creation of a thing.
Maybe this is why Silicon Valley seems to have become obsessed with productivity and AI whereas the people in the industries you mention don't seem as excited. It's because they are actually making real things so they don't have to 'look busy' in order to justify themselves.
https://components.news/the-gamer-and-the-nihilist/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47235774