Hundreds of software engineers traveled to San Francisco this week for Anthropic’s annual developer conference to hear what the frontier AI lab is up to. Many of the most cutting-edge coders were also there to figure out how close their jobs were to disappearing. At the conference, Anthropic announced adding ways for agents to manage each other and the ability to “dream,” or review and learn from their previous work.

The tools were pitched to developers as a way to build increasingly complex systems — similar to how the creation of Excel spreadsheets led to a boom in the accounting profession. But the recent spate of tech layoffs tied to AI improvements instilled more fear than enthusiasm in many of the developers I spoke with. One developer said he is even encouraging his son, who recently started college with a major in computer science, to minor in philosophy as a backup if the whole CS thing doesn’t work out.

There was one burgeoning group of attendees brimming with optimism, though: social media influencers. It’s becoming increasingly common to see influencers at tech conferences, and Anthropic certainly met the moment. Besides the tequila and orange liqueur, the company also tapped Claude to write poems for each guest based on what they looked like.

Optics appear to be increasingly important to Anthropic as it attempts to sell to a broader audience, but as it shapes that image, it risks alienating its most loyal user base if it leans too much toward trendsetting.