Can machine learning and AI make programmers obsolete? Can AI make software coding and debugging a thing of the past?

To the reader/asker:

As usual, I’ll make my point backed by verifiable examples.

Let’s use the agent to see if it can search at least, when it doesn’t know?

What are the latest developments in the tech industry?

Agent, are you sure???? You’re lying again, aren’t you?

Let’s ask Claude Sonnet 3.5, which is quite the advanced model (at par with Deepseek V3 R1 and GPT 4o) a very simple question:

And hey Claude? There’s a reserved float division /. if both numbers are floats, for sure (19) but so can one use // even though both are integers (20):

A child had measles at Mall of America, concerning state health officials who don’t know source - Star Tribune

And presto goes Claude, the clueless junior-dev (it also botched correctly showing //):

And let’s use the latest, extra-capable model 4.1 from OpenAPI. The result:

Ah. Claude Claude Claude.

Donald Trump's family launches 'Made in America' T1 smartphone. Here's what it offers - Mint

Re——-aaaaalllllly.

Here’s the proof :

I don’t think so Claudeboy.

Why does the UK Labour MP Jess Philips seem to be such a divisive figure?

And ever so dutifully, Claude reports:

Your software developer job is safe for at least the next 100 years.

Now, let’s think about that for a second or two. Such an elementary matter and such egregious error of omission!

Mrtka said being drafted in the NHL was a dream come true - Audacy

Claude boy, how do I do division and modulus in OCaml?

You can do modulus with %. In fact, it’s the standard way to do it! (See command 17). And mod is deprecated (command 18):