--- title: "In Leaked Audio, Amazon Cloud CEO Says Human Developers Will Soon Be a Thing of the Past" description: "The CEO of Amazon Web Services suggested in leaked audio that human devs may not be coding in as little as two years." date: "2024-08-22" modified: "2024-08-22" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/aws-ceo-human-devs-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "Amazon" - "automation" - "labor" - "the digest" --- # In Leaked Audio, Amazon Cloud CEO Says Human Developers Will Soon Be a Thing of the Past ![The CEO of Amazon Web Services suggested in leaked audio that human devs may not be coding in as little as two years.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Fire and Frenzy During a leaked "fireside chat," the head of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Matt Garman suggested that in as little as two years, human developers may need to learn different skills to make way for artificial intelligence coders. "If you go forward 24 months from now, or some amount of time — I can't exactly predict where it is — it's possible that most developers are not coding," he exclaimed in [audio leaked to *Business Insider*](). Just a month after [overseeing hundreds of AWS job cuts]() in April, [Garman was promoted to CEO](). With that pedigree of rapid ascension amid layoffs, he seems perfectly poised to deliver that kind of pep talk to his assembled employees. "Coding is just kind of like the language that we talk to computers. It's not necessarily the skill in and of itself," the CEO said. "The skill in and of itself is like, how do I innovate? How do I go build something that's interesting for my end users to use?" "Being a developer in 2025 may be different than what it was as a developer in 2020," Garman added. While AWS insists that Garman wasn't issuing a "warning," his language still comes across as a little unsettling, highlighting the threats of job automation in the age of AI. Experts have long warned that the tech could soon start replacing programmers and software engineers in their entirety — but how real this threat is or when we will really start feeling the effects remains uncertain. ## No Code Though he doesn't seem to have explicitly named the algorithmic elephant in the room, it's pretty clear from the tenor of the conversation — and the context surrounding everything related to [job security in the tech world]() right now — that Garman was talking about [AI taking over the work of coding](). "It just means that each of us has to get more in tune with what our customers need and what the actual end thing is that we're going to try to go build," Garman said, "because that's going to be more and more of what the work is as opposed to sitting down and actually writing code." In a statement to *BI*, an AWS spokesperson insisted Garman wasn't issuing a warning but was instead speaking on developers' opportunities to "accomplish more than they do today." "Matt articulated a vision for how AWS will continue to remove undifferentiated heavy lifting from the developer experience," the spox said, "so that builders can focus more of their skill and energy on the most innovative work." What that "innovative work" entails, however, remains to be seen. **More on AI in the workplace:** [*Tech CEO Admits That He* “*Really F\*cking Hates*” *Generative AI*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()