From AmigaBASIC to AI

Sebastian Bergmann, creator of PHPUnit, traces his programming journey from typing BASIC on an Amiga 500 in the late 1980s through demoscene culture, ARexx scripting, PHP development, and building PHPUnit. He reflects on how software development has evolved from simple FTP deployments to complex CI/CD pipelines. The piece then turns critical toward AI coding assistants, arguing they risk hollowing out junior developer skills by automating the entry-level tasks through which experience is traditionally built. He raises concerns about digital sovereignty, energy consumption, copyright violations in AI training data, and the market strategy of low prices creating long-term dependency. He warns that Microsoft and Amazon are positioning themselves as gatekeepers of software creation, turning developers into 'prompters' while capturing the value chain.