The article is good in that it highlights the need for AI agents/assistants to help with different parts of software development, not just the up front "build me a new widget" part. The author (correctly imo) frames that if someone just uses an AI agent/assistant at the new widget part, then they'll end up with a lot more code to maintain since with AI, they crank out more code. Even if it's high quality, there is maintenance cost over time.

That being said, the problem the author talks about is more of a self imposed thing than everyone is going to suffer thing. The author correctly points out the startup scenario, where its just "get this damn thing to work somehow so I can see if there's market fit and nab some customers". That scenario has typically always come with higher maintenance costs down the road because quality is (rightfully) lowered in the name of speed to see if there's a business and if there is, get it going.

Also felt like the author was reluctant to talk about how AI can actually help with the maintenance part. AI can be great at fixing old dependencies and annoying bugs (with human guidance). Those tasks can feel like toil for software engineers and the kinds of things a software engineer will want AI to help with