Stack Overflow Decided to Fire 28% of its Employees Because of ChatGPT
The Stack Overflow forum, which is popular among those involved in programming, is now facing unexpectedly serious competition from ChatGPT. When it turned out that a well-known chatbot with artificial intelligence quickly generated code and did a good job of answering questions related to development, the demand for a living person as such an assistant decreased significantly.
Previously, programmers actively used the Stack Overflow platform, where they mainly asked for help solving coding problems. The emergence of ChatGPT brought significant changes to this established system of mutual assistance. It turned out that this chatbot with artificial intelligence provides excellent and, most importantly, prompt assistance in coding. It instantly finds and corrects human errors, offers code optimization options, and gives detailed line-by-line explanations. In addition, it quickly validates solutions by testing them directly in the user's coding environment. Due to the high pace of work today, developers feel the need for immediate and clear answers to their questions. This is what made the AI-based chatbot the most attractive assistant, which, in fact, can now replace a person in this area. The consequences were not long in coming. Back in August, Stack Overflow representatives noted a drop in traffic to their site due to the rapid growth in popularity of generative AI.
Recently, Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar announced the need to reduce staff by 28%, emphasizing that this is necessary for the company to remain profitable and focus on innovation. According to him, the company took measures aimed at cutting costs, but they were not enough. In addition, Prashanth Chandrasekar complained about the global pressure of macroeconomics on the technology sector. Although he hasn't directly spoken about the impact of generative AI chatbots on his business, the connection between the release of ChatGPT and the decline in Stack Overflow traffic is clear. It is not yet known how these layoffs will affect the work of Stack Overflow. At the same time, the main mission of the company remains unchanged: to provide programmers with a platform for training and the exchange of experience and knowledge.