又要被炒魷魚？
星期一當我走進辦公室，打開電腦時，我看見 PR 上多出了一個不認識的名字，Devin。奇怪，老闆沒有說他招了新的員工呀？點進去一看，原來是 Devin AI。
當我一提起 Devin，老闆就大聲叫嚷著 Devin 有多好，「一個月多少錢？」我問。「才 500 美！」他說。什麼？身為一個新創買這個 2B 產品，也太貴了吧！老闆可一個非常省吃儉用的人，總是看著公司的 runway 哀哀叫，怎麼會說 Devin 便宜呢？
住在舊金山，多少也聽過看過 AI 當作取代工程師的產品，但一直覺得差強人意，所以我從來沒有放在心上，心想 AI 取代人類的未來雖然是會降臨，但可能還需要許多時間，直到今天認識了 Devin。下午老闆用 Devin 做了個 Demo，老闆在 slack 跟 Devin 說：「我們整個使用者旅程最後有的銷售頁面該被更新了，現在的是那頁『do you want to 3x improvement』，但應該要換成現在新版的，你可以幫我換一下嗎？」
Devin 立刻幫老闆做了規劃，然後問老闆說：「你可以給你的帳號密碼，然後教導我怎麼走完使用者旅程嗎？」
老闆給他們帳密，跟他說他可以去首頁的選單裡找一門課，點 start studying 然後一直點右鍵到最後。我們所有人親眼見識到 Devin 寫完的程式，他不但推送了 PR ，甚至還有他怎麼測試他的程式的影片，他同時跑了前端和後端，照著老闆的指令操作了使用者旅程，最後那的更新過的銷售頁面完美呈現，老闆教過他的指令，也早就存入他的記憶文檔裡了。
看著我自己每天手寫的代碼庫被 Devin 精美的操作，我驚呆了。一瞬間我想像未來的某一天，老闆對我說：「你被開除了，因為 Devin 寫得更好。」
平心而論，雖然 Devin 動作很慢，但是它可能比剛近公司的第一周的我還更好優秀。而我不難想像，如果只是一個大學畢業新鮮人，只有基礎程式經驗，不懂的 javascript 和 React，今天的 Devin ，他們可能要花一個月的時間苦學才有辦法追得上。而 Devin 現在可是最差版本，當有一天，大學畢業新鮮人需要一到兩年才能夠追上他時，遊戲真的就結束了，初階工程師的工作絕對會被取代。
最近很多新的 AI 產品令人震懾，不只是這種邏輯性的工作會被取代，而是「以人為本」的工作也可能被填補。像是我的最近分手摯友告訴我 AI 比諮商師還更有用，因為可以立即獲得幫助、有耐心、和不批評，不用掛號預約，等了一週才處理情緒。他說：「我和 AI 諮詢時，有比和人類更多的親密感。」
自從 AI 的出現，大家開始被恐嚇畢業即失業，但鮮少人仔細反省，我們花了四年大學的所學，如果都沒能力在職場派上用場，在 AI 面前手無縛雞之力，那為什麼去上學呢？大學教育是工業革命的產物，而今天工業革命培養的人才早就不再是人才了，去大學更像是單純的資質憑證，而這樣的社會系統在這一波科技革命的壓力下，一定必須出現巨變，不然人類跟本沒有競爭力。親眼見證 Devin ，讓我感受到下一波的浪潮，但巨大的威脅，就也是改變的契機，教育真的該不一樣。
On Monday, when I walked into the office and opened my computer, I saw an unfamiliar name on the PR — Devin. Strange, the boss never mentioned hiring a new employee. I clicked on it, and it turned out to be Devin AI.
Whenever I mentioned Devin, the boss would loudly rave about how great it was. “How much does it cost per month?” I asked. “Only 500 bucks!” he said. What? For a startup to buy this B2B product, that’s too expensive! The boss is extremely frugal and always complains about the company’s runway — how could he say Devin is cheap?
Living in San Francisco, I’ve heard of and seen AI products that aim to replace engineers, but I’ve always found them lacking, so I never paid much attention. I thought that while AI replacing humans may eventually happen, it would still take time — until today when I got to know Devin. In the afternoon, the boss did a demo with Devin. He told Devin on Slack: “The sales page at the end of our user journey needs to be updated. The current one says ‘Do you want a 3x improvement?’, but it should be replaced with the new version. Can you help me update it?”
Devin immediately planned the update and then asked the boss: “Can you give me your account and password and walk me through the user journey?”
The boss gave them the credentials and told them to go to the course menu on the homepage, click “Start Studying,” and keep clicking right until the end. We all watched in awe as Devin wrote the code. Not only did it push the PR, but it also created a browser video showing how it tested the code. It ran both the front-end and back-end, followed the boss’s instructions to complete the user journey, and the updated sales page appeared perfectly. The commands the boss had taught Devin were already stored in its memory.
Watching Devin smoothly handle tasks that I used to manually code left me speechless. For a moment, I imagined a future where the boss says to me,
To be fair, although Devin was slow, it was probably more efficient than I was during my first week at the company. I can easily imagine that if it were a fresh college graduate with just basic programming experience who didn’t know JavaScript or React, it might take them a month of intense study to catch up. But this is just the most basic version of Devin. One day, when fresh graduates need one or two years to catch up with Devin, the game will be over — the jobs of entry-level engineers will be completely replaced.
Recently, many new AI products are truly astonishing. It’s not just logical work that will be replaced, but even “people-centered” jobs might be filled. For example, one of my best friend told me that AI is more helpful than a therapist because it provides immediate assistance, is patient, and doesn’t criticize. No need for appointments or waiting a week to process emotions. He said, “I feel more intimate when consulting AI than when talking to a human.”
Since the emergence of AI, people have been scared into thinking they’ll be unemployed right after graduation, but few take a moment to reflect. If we spent four years learning at university and can’t apply that knowledge in the workplace, if we’re powerless in front of AI, then why go to school? University education was a product of the industrial revolution, and today, the talent trained by the industrial revolution is no longer considered “talent.” Going to university now feels more like obtaining a credentials. Under the pressure of this technological revolution, society’s education system must undergo a massive transformation, or humans will lose their competitive edge. Witnessing Devin firsthand made me feel the next wave of change. While it’s a huge threat, it’s also an opportunity for change. Our education needs to change.
