As a semi-professional coder (I do more than code) I can...

As a semi-professional coder (I do more than code) I can certainly vouch for new AI tooling. At this stage, I think you need to have good skills and experience to really leverage it, but I can also appreciate that it is early days, and it will continue to improve. In some cases, it's fantastic, in others a bit confusing and simply wrong, and in others, scary... and I can imagine it will get scarier as AI creates more complex code with unknown, unintentional embedded bugs that no one can easily find or that no one is even looking for. Much like human code, I suppose. The reality is we are using countless pieces of software every day, and no-one (with very very rare exceptions) has any idea who (or what) wrote the code, or set up the database etc.

I do really like the Microsoft move. Will it benefit Appen? Not directly. There will continue to be the need for Appen like services though, no doubt about that.

Fun and Games.