About whether generative AI will make computer programming 10x more productive.
Has this happened?
Yes 84 (77%)Not sure 14 (13%)No 11 (10%)
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?
About whether generative AI will make computer programming 10x more productive.
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Just because this article isn't well formed or sourced doesnt make its claim incorrect.
I program daily and I use AI for it daily.
For short and simple programs AI can do it 100x faster, but it is fundamentally limited by its context size. As a program grows in complexity AI is not currently able to create or modify the codebase with success (around 2000 lines is where I found it has a barrier). I suspect it's due to exponential complexity associated with input size.
Show me an AI that can do this for a 10,000 lines complex program and I'll eat my own shorts