At first glance, Sam Altman’s latest tweet reads like a simple thank you. Then you notice the wording and it starts to feel like something else.
See what you think:
“I have so much gratitude to people who wrote extremely complex software character-by-character. It already feels difficult to remember how much effort it really took.
Thank you for getting us to this point.”
Phrases like “Getting us to this point” and "already feels difficult" sound harmless enough, but there’s an unsettling way to read it: that this point is the moment where writing software character-by-character is no longer necessary. That the era those developers helped build is now giving way to something else entirely.
I have so much gratitude to people who wrote extremely complex software character-by-character. It already feels difficult to remember how much effort it really took.Thank you for getting us to this point.March 17, 2026
Altman likely meant it as a genuine note of appreciation. But like many statements about AI right now, it carries implications that stretch far beyond its surface meaning.
This is the same CEO who has spoken about a future where intelligence becomes a utility that you buy like electricity, and where the cost of training AI systems is weighed alongside the cost of training humans.
The direction of travel is clear, and the messaging sometimes feels more casual than the consequences.
The canary in the coal mine
Coders are very much the canary in the coal mine when it comes to AI. Not because their jobs are simple, but because they are structured and logical — in short, it's the sort of thing that AI can do very well.
I was actually set up for a career in coding myself — I did Computer Science at University and did a year placement working as a coder. However, that year was enough to convince me it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, so I gave up what was at the time considered a ‘safe bet’ and eventually found my way into tech journalism.
These days learning to code no longer seems like a way into a safe career because AI is able to generate complex, reliable code from simple text prompts, or even take existing code and improve it.
A warning shot
It feels like we’re at the edge of a transition with coders right now. I’m left wondering what profession is next? We’ve already seen AI coming for artists, writers and designers.
Thanks to its agentic capacity, AI is already threatening more professions, from web designers to booking assistants, and pretty much anything that involves decision making.
There’s nothing wrong with thanking the people who built the systems driving this change, but at the same time, there’s no acknowledgement that those people are being replaced by AI.
Altman’s tweet might genuinely be a thank you, but it also feels like a marker. We’ve crossed into a new phase, whether everyone is ready for it or not.
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