alt Hacker NewsNot a valley person here (NYC rules!)
Your first argument, transported back to the 70s, would make it hard for people to start the transition to using compilers or interpreters instead of assembly language. I see no fundamental difference in coding with advanced LLM vs using a compiler, and the situation will improve further in short order. Bugs can exist in any scenario and we have ways to find them. Much fewer bugs per project than if everything was done by humans in <insert-language-of-your-choice>.
> > human approval is no longer considered viable by a majority
> Where do you see data that the majority believe this? From what I can see it is a shrinking minority as we move beyond peak hype.
All coding harnesses (claude, codex, even copilot...) started supporting automated approval at some points this year. Some of them by now use it as a default option (claude code); others (codex) get strong nudging (and free inference cost for the approval option) to select that option.
There are other places to stay in the loop, while loop engineering. For example at the PR point. I have a post that is nearly done on my blueprint, perhaps it will get some HN love/hate when I share it. :fingerscrossed: Auto-approve in the harness can be fine, but completely eyes-free is a mentality and goal among the people at the top of Ai and some of the tech scene.
But I remain unconvinced, based on what I've seen across many projects, that humans can stop looking at code. A place we see these outcomes regularly is with non-developers trying to use Ai to write code. Cool for side projects, doesn't work for businesses. Ai enhances expertise, it does not make one from amateurs.
Then there is the burnout. I spoke with a friend last night who works at a company who's CTO is pushing the eyes free coding practices. He's tired of babysitting a dozen claudes, the output is of dubious quality (since no one really knows whats in there, especially at the rate they are asked to push changes), made the comment bad developers are still pushing bad code, and that he's looking for a new job. It's completely unsustainable, in his words.