Goalposts

Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?

2026 Februarypointlessone

About whether AI threatens programmers who fix obscure bugs nobody else can.

I’m not convinced. That sort of thing usually depends on some very specific arcana or weird interaction between systems that is not in the code. It usually requires either external knowledge or deep investigation and compilation of evidence from multiple sources. I haven’t seen AI do that much.

Look at recent examples of browsers and matrix servers. AI can’t even follow extremely detailed specs with extensive test suites.

If anything, nice and friendly but mediocre devs are in more immediate danger than rough but extremely competent devs.

But we’ve seen C-suits losing institutional knowledge at a drop of a hat for decades so who knows? Maybe knowledge and skill are not that valued.

AI builds software like a browser or Matrix server by following an extremely detailed spec with an extensive test suite.

Has this happened?

Yes 56 (51%)Not sure 24 (22%)No 30 (27%)

Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.