As AI eliminates entry-level software engineering roles, coding boot camps are on decline
That was not the plan when Kim paid nearly US$20,000 in 2023 for an intensive part-time coding boot camp he thought would equip him to land a software engineering job.
'They sold a fake dream of a great job market,' said Kim, 29, who works at his uncle's ice cream shop in Los Angeles while continuing his job search. Without a college degree, he believes his chances are low, but boosts his résumé by contributing to open-source software projects.
'I see so much doom and gloom throughout everything,' he said. 'It's hard to stay positive.'
Kim decided to attend the coding boot camp just as
artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT were taking off. By the time he graduated in 2024, AI – which started off with simple party tricks like writing poems – was on its way to reshaping the economy, with perhaps its most significant impact in coding.
It began eliminating the kind of entry-level developer roles that boot camps have traditionally filled, in what has been dubbed one of the fastest job shifts in any profession ever.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
24 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
Gold will not face tariffs after customs confusion, Trump says
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that gold imports will not face additional tariffs, days after confusion flared on whether recent rises applied to certain gold bars – threatening to upend global trade of the precious metal. Advertisement Trump's comments came after US customs authorities made public a letter saying that gold bars at two standard weights – one kilogram and 100 ounces (2.8 kilos) – should be classified as subject to duties. 'Gold will not be Tariffed!' Trump said on his Truth Social platform, without providing further details. The letter, which was made public last week and dated July 31, was first reported on by the Financial Times, sending the price of gold on the US futures market to a record high. But a White House official told Agence France-Presse on Friday that the Trump administration plans to 'issue an executive order in the near future clarifying misinformation about the tariffing of gold bars and other speciality products'. Advertisement On Friday, gold for December delivery hit a record high on the Comex, the world's biggest futures market.
HKFP
4 hours ago
- HKFP
Nvidia, AMD to pay US 15% of AI chip sales to China: media reports
US semiconductor giants Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices have agreed to pay the United States government 15 percent of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China, according to media reports Sunday. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday and agreed to give the federal government the cut from its revenues, a highly unusual arrangement in the international tech trade, according to reports in the Financial Times, Bloomberg and New York Times. According to the Financial Times, the artificial intelligence chips that are part of the agreement with the US government are Nvidia's 'H20' and the 'MI308' from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Nvidia did not deny the reported deal when approached for comment. 'We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets,' a spokesperson told AFP. 'While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide.' The company spokesperson added: 'America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership. America's AI tech stack can be the world's standard if we race.' AMD did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment. Investors are betting that AI will transform the global economy, and Nvidia — the world's leading semiconductor producer — last month became the first company ever to hit $4 trillion in market value. The California-based firm has, however, become entangled in trade tensions between China and the United States, which are waging a heated battle for dominance to produce the chips that power AI. The US has been restricting which chips Nvidia can export to China on national security grounds. 'Political tariff' Nvidia said last month that Washington had pledged to let the company sell its H20 chips to China, which are a less powerful version that the tech giant specifically developed for the Chinese market. The Trump administration had not issued licenses to allow Nvidia to sell the chips before the reported White House meeting. On Friday, however, the Commerce Department started granting the licenses for chip sales, the reports said. Silicon Valley-based AMD will also pay 15 percent of revenue on Chinese sales of its MI308 chips, which it was previously barred from exporting to the country. The deal could earn the US government more than US$2 billion, according to the New York Times report. The move comes as the Trump administration has been imposing stiff tariffs, with goals varying from addressing US trade imbalances, wanting to reshore manufacturing, and pressuring foreign governments to change policies. A 100 percent tariff on many semiconductor imports came into effect last week, with exceptions for tech companies that announce major investments in the United States. 'It's a political tariff in everything but name, brokered in the shadow of heightened US-China tech tensions,' Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said.
South China Morning Post
6 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Trump urges China quadruple US soy buys, amid trade truce deadline
US President Donald Trump said he hopes China will massively step up its purchases of American soybeans – comments that come a day before a trade truce expires. Advertisement 'China is worried about its shortage of soybeans,' Trump wrote on social media on Monday. 'I hope China will quickly quadruple its soybean orders. This is also a way of substantially reducing China's trade deficit with the USA.' Trump also thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the post, without saying why. The president's push is happening as US farmers are just weeks from their next harvest, boosting supplies available to sell. China is the world's top buyer of the oilseed and usually ranks as the biggest customer of American soy farmers, a trade valued at more than US$12 billion in 2024. However, US government data as of late July show the Asian nation has refrained from booking any cargoes for the coming season that starts in September as tensions between the two sides linger. Soybean futures in Chicago jumped as much as 2.8 per cent after Trump's post, the biggest intraday gain in four months, and traded 2.3 per cent higher as of 5.15am local time. Corn and wheat also rose. Soybeans are planted on a farm in Minnesota. Photo: AP Agriculture has been a key issue in the trade dispute between the two sides, with China turning to crops from South America and elsewhere to meet its needs. China agreed to increase buying of US agricultural goods like soybeans during the so-called phase one trade agreement reached during Trump's first term, although Beijing ultimately fell well short of the purchase targets in that pact.
