Barack Obama says AI is already better than "70% of coders," but Bill Gates argues that programming is still too complex for AI to totally replace humans

With the emergence of generative AI and its rapid adoption across the world, job security is becoming a major concern among most professionals. Over the past few years, tech industry leaders, including NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, claimed that a career in software development might already be dead in the water with the rapid prevalence of AI.

Instead, the executive encouraged the next generation to seek alternative career options in biology, farming, education, or manufacturing.

Likewise, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently indicated that AI has a high propensity to replace humans for most things, but no one would want to watch computers "playing baseball."

Perhaps more interestingly, the philanthropic billionaire claimed that only three jobs will survive the AI revolution, including biologists, energy experts, and coders. He further indicated that the fields were too complex to be fully augmented by AI.

However, former US President Barack Obama seems to have a different outlook on how AI will impact the workforce, specifically for coders in software development.

According to Obama, AI is going to become even more impactful, leading to automation of more than just manufacturing processes or the "use of robot arms" (via @vitrupo on X-formerly Twitter).

He further indicated that the technology is casting its net wider into high-level intellectual work, claiming current AI models can code better than "60% to 70%" of coders:

"The best coders will be able to use these tools to augment what they already do, but for a lot of routine stuff, you just won't need a coder because the computer or the machine will do it itself."

Obama indicated that this will cause a ripple effect across professions. "So it may be that everybody, not just blue-collar workers, not just factory workers, are going to have to figure out, where do I get a job? How do I get enough income to feed my family?"

The former President indicated that it will also be important for people to know how to find "purpose and meaning" in their lives as various industries shift to incorporate artificial intelligence.