Can a computer program a computer as well as a human being can? Artificial intelligence enabled a quantum leap in the quality of the tools programmer use to write code - but they're delicate. Push them too hard and they break. Even when they work they can write reams of code that no human can make heads or tails of. John Allsopp joins us to investigate whether programmers will soon become obsolete - or whether they'll kept around toclean up AI-generated messes. Is AI making the discipline of software engineering any better - or is that just a story we're telling ourselves?

The Next Billion Seconds with Mark Pesce is produced by Ampel and Myrtle and Pine  

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