About whether LLMs are just the next abstraction layer, like compilers over assembly.
Has this happened?
Yes 10 (9%)Not sure 10 (9%)No 96 (83%)
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 LLMs are just the next abstraction layer, like compilers over assembly.
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Not really a counter-argument.
The abstraction over assembly language is solid; compilers very rarely (if at all) fail to translate high level code into the correct assembly code.
LLMs are nowhere near the level where you can have almost 100% assurance that they do what you want and expect, even with a lot of hand-holding. They are not even a leaky abstraction; they are an "abstraction" with gaping holes.