Welcome to Tech Brief. Today we explore how AI is reshaping coding at Amazon. What was once a creative craft now feels more like an assembly line. Engineers report a “speed-up, work intensification, and work degradation” as they race to meet higher output goals using AI assistants like Copilot. According to one engineer, teams half the size of last year are expected to produce roughly the same amount of code. Deadlines that once spanned weeks now shrink to days, forcing developers to rely on AI to generate and review large portions of programs. Some call these tools “scarily good,” but they warn that reading AI-written code all day “is never a fun part of the job.” Junior engineers fear losing the deep learning that comes from hands-on coding and testing. Amazon says AI frees staff from tedious tasks and that collaboration remains critical. But for many, the shift feels less like progress and more like a dreaded speed-up. That’s it for Tech Brief—thanks for listening. Stay tuned for more insights next week.
Link to Article