Silicon Valley GirlGitHub CEO: Why Now Is the BEST Time to Be a Developer | Thomas Dohmke
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
25 min read · 4,823 words- 0:00 – 0:53
Teaser – future of coding
- MMMarina Mogilko
What would you say to coders who are learning how to code right now? This is Thomas, CEO of GitHub, the world's largest platform for developers with over 100 million users. Under his leadership, GitHub Copilot became the most widely adopted AI coding tool in history. We see big companies put a stop on hiring. In two years, do you think I would need a developer?
- TDThomas Dohmke
The idea that AI without any coding skills, lets you just build a billion-dollar business is mistaken, because if, if that would be the case, everyone would do it.
- MMMarina Mogilko
He led GitHub's $7.5 billion integration with Microsoft. Now he's shaping the future of coding itself. So you're not scared?
- TDThomas Dohmke
The dream of software development was always that I can take the idea that I have in my head on a Sunday morning, and by the evening, I have the app in the- up and running on my phone.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Thanks to HubSpot for sponsoring this video.
- 0:53 – 1:53
Vibe coding – why it changes everything
- MMMarina Mogilko
Hey, guys, welcome to Silicon Valley Girl. We're here at Viva Technology in Paris, and I have Thomas, the CEO of GitHub. I am so excited to talk to you about what's going on in coding. First of all, let's define vibe coding. For everyone who's heard this term, and they're like, "What's, what's going on? What's happening?"
- TDThomas Dohmke
Ooh, that's a tough question to start with. I think the, you know, the loosest interpretation from my side is that vibe coding means you open your IDE, you know, like, like Copilot or Cursor, Windsurf, any of these, and you go into the agent mode, and you give it a task to do, and then you're just following along of what the agent proposes to you, and you run the commands. And you're mostly focused on interacting with the agent, and not so much of what the code actually is doing.
- MMMarina Mogilko
And you don't have to-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Like, you're not reviewing the code all the time.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah, and you don't have to learn how to code. 'Cause I tried-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah
- MMMarina Mogilko
... GitHub Copilot.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah.
- MMMarina Mogilko
I was just chatting with it.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah.
- MMMarina Mogilko
I'm like, "Create this website, do this," and then it just tells me where to put the code.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah.
- MMMarina Mogilko
So it starts working.
- 1:53 – 3:35
How complex can sites get
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah.
- MMMarina Mogilko
So how complicated can the website get with vibe coding? Can I build something that has a database?
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Or is it just, like, a landing page or a very simple app?
- TDThomas Dohmke
My rule of thumb would be you can get as far as you're having the patience to keep prompting, because, you know, as you said, if you don't understand what the agent is actually writing, what the code looks like, well, then your only way of modifying, you know, the functionality is by figuring out how to prompt. It almost becomes a, your, your, a, a quiz-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Art
- TDThomas Dohmke
... or like a game-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... right? Like, where you're trying to-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
"Okay, so, hmm, let me try a different approach." I like to compare this to image models, all right? You start with a simple prompt, and you render an image of Paris, and then almost certainly you get something which isn't exactly what you expected. And then you start, you know, rewriting it, and for some time there were, like, tricks to do that in, in Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, uh, by th- doing things like training on Artstation. Uh, and then you got closer to what you wanted, but at some point-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm
- TDThomas Dohmke
... you either run into, like, a direction where you can't keep going anymore, or you just take it and, you know, move it into Photoshop or in, in, in, in, in the world of Copilot into VS Code, and, and now you have to start learning how to code. So I think you can build a web page, you can build authentication, you can build, you know, settings pages, and things like that, but you're ultimately always going to reach a point where the complexity, uh, is, is so, um, deep, I guess-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... you know, that you have to then understand what the code is actually doing, or you're building something and it doesn't scale, you know, and it's super slow. And now figuring out a prompt on how to m- make it fast and, you know, let's say it's a Shopify shop, and make it scale for Black Friday, that, that is when you have to be a professional developer, at least, you know, for now.
- 3:35 – 4:48
No developers in 2 years?
- MMMarina Mogilko
So, um, right now we're using code to do basic things. In two years, do you think I would need a developer to build a billion-dollar company with just vibe coding, or we're still too far away from it?
- TDThomas Dohmke
I think you have to be a developer to be in the tech business, because what you can do with, with just the help of AI, not coding, everybody else can do as well. And as such, your business isn't really differentiated anymore from other businesses, right? Like, if I can just prompt it in five minutes and build it myself, what do I need a SaaS service that I pay a subscription for, right? And so I think the startups will build in 10x, 100x more complex things than they're doing today with the help of AI, and as such, are differentiating from those that are just vibing it.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Now, you know, there's lots of businesses where you don't have to code at all, uh, you know, like, like your, your YouTube channel, and there's many other YouTube channels where you can build out a brand and then hire a team to do a lot of these things. But I, I think the, the idea that AI, without any coding skills, lets you just build a billion-dollar business is mistaken, because if, if that would be the case, everyone would do it.
- MMMarina Mogilko
And then everybody has a billion-dollar company, which is-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Which doesn't work, right?
- MMMarina Mogilko
Doesn't work that way.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Like, who's paying the-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... who's paying the money? [chuckles]
- 4:48 – 6:08
Prompt better – make AI your co-founder
- MMMarina Mogilko
Exa- exactly. I know a lot of you guys who are watching this are dreaming of becoming tech founders, and with new AI, it's so much easier to build an app or to put your idea into action within 24 hours. And it's becoming crystal clear that AI is not just a tool, it can actually become your co-founder. But the key is how you prompt it. How do you make it think like you? Because the better you are at talking to it, the more powerful it becomes. If you want to get really good at using ChatGPT or any AI tool, I highly recommend you check out this e-book that is called Advanced ChatGPT Prompt Engineering: From Basic to Expert in 7 Days. I put the link in the description to download it for free. It's basically a step-by-step guide to teach AI think like you. So instead of just randomly prompting, you build systems that save you time. I especially love two sections: the ROSES framework, it gives you a crystal-clear formula for structuring any prompt with the right role, objective, scenario, expected output, and steps; and modular architecture, it teaches you how to create prompt components you can mix and match like Legos and save hours every week. This book is made by HubSpot Media, which is the sponsor of today's video, and honestly, I wish I had something like that when I just started using AI and started prompting by myself. Now, let's get back to our conversation.... do you think we're gonna have
- 6:08 – 7:30
The future of developers
- MMMarina Mogilko
less or more developers in five years?
- TDThomas Dohmke
I think we are going to have way more developers-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Way more
- TDThomas Dohmke
... because it's so much easier to learn it, you know? We talked about our kids earlier.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Kids can just get into this by using, uh-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Right now
- TDThomas Dohmke
... Copilot-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... and then say, "Hey, how do I build a game?"
- MMMarina Mogilko
Exactly.
- TDThomas Dohmke
And then they see games, you know, when they, when they go to school, when they talk to their friends, when they, you know, go to a ski lodge, and they have a Nintendo corner. And so naturally, kids, when they, uh, uh, you know, explore these, these technologies, they wanna learn it themselves. And so giving them, you know, an agent, a chat tool on the side to say, "Hey, you know, this is how you can learn coding. This is kind of how you can fix your bugs-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... this is kind of how you can unblock yourself," right? Like, the most frustrating thing when you're learning something is you're stuck somewhere, and then you have nobody at home or in your, in your family or friends that can help you with that because they're all non-technical. So like, that's when we are- when we're saying AI is democratizing access, that's what we mean. Everyone who wants to learn it can learn it. Now, that doesn't mean, you know, everybody who wants to learn coding then becomes a professional software developer.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Right? I think there's a much bigger... going to be much bigger range between consumer developers that build their own micro apps, personalized things, you know, the-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... Trip to Paris app to figure out, this is the places we wanna see, this is all the photos we took. And it's only valuable to you and your family or you and your friends, all the way to the professional developers that builds all these AI systems, all the agents that we see here on the show floor today. That, I think, is still going
- 7:30 – 8:25
The smartest companies will be hiring more developers, not less
- TDThomas Dohmke
to be profession, and there's going to be those- the companies that are the smartest are going to hire more developers. Because if you 10X a single developer, then 10 developers can do 100X.
- MMMarina Mogilko
100X.
- TDThomas Dohmke
[laughing]
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah, it feels like we're moving in- with the developing, we're moving into, like, what websites used to be 10 years ago-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah
- MMMarina Mogilko
... when suddenly there are tools like Squarespace, and-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah
- MMMarina Mogilko
... everyone starts having a website. So they need designers who are not too technical, who have taste. So something like this, right? When everyone has-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Right
- MMMarina Mogilko
... an ability to code an app, they will still need someone to, like, take care of it.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Correct. And you wouldn't start a business today where you're saying, "I'm building app- web pages for-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... for, for small businesses," right? Like, every VC will tell you that's, that's not differentiated. There, there is no moat.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm.
- TDThomas Dohmke
You know, that's, that's not the next billion-dollar business. That's why I'm thinking, you know, AI will generate so much bigger ideas that the same size of team can implement, or as you grow your team, you can de- do even more than those that are just using AI for cost savings.
- MMMarina Mogilko
It's interesting when
- 8:25 – 9:18
10x teams – but who's buying?
- MMMarina Mogilko
we talk about this, when I tell this idea to my followers-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah
- MMMarina Mogilko
... like, "Hey, every team can become a lot bigger, they can deliver more," they're like, "But who's gonna buy?" [laughing] We're still gonna have the same amount of people. What do you think about that?
- TDThomas Dohmke
I think it's temporary, a, a, a temporary effect right now, that this is the natural conclusion for the short term. It keeps things stable, and we're trying to figure out how the market develops. But very quickly, I think we're going to see people that say, "Well, wait a second, if I have one more productive developer, why wouldn't I hire another one and another one?" And in fact, you know, AI has already added more work to the backlogs, right? Like, I haven't seen companies saying, "Well, we're draining all our backlog, and we have almost nothing left. And soon enough, AI is so powerful that all the ideas are implemented, and we're just sitting around doing nothing." I think the reality is AI, you know, all these models, all these agents, you know, the path to AGI ultimately, uh, means that we have more work to do. I said this morning
- 9:18 – 9:48
90% of code by AI agents?
- TDThomas Dohmke
that I believe 90% of all code is going to be written by agents.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
And that sounds like we take away 90% of the work from developers, and they're only left with 10%. But if the total amount of code is growing by 10X, right, now the agent has 9X, and the developer still has their 1X that they had before.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
And so you can keep going with that logic, and, and you see that, you know, ultimately, those companies are successful that use AI to accelerate, not to cut costs.
- MMMarina Mogilko
But at the same time, we see big companies, uh, put
- 9:48 – 11:02
Big tech halts hiring – what's next?
- MMMarina Mogilko
a sto- put a stop on hiring, and they say, like, "Hey, you need it..." to their employees, "You need to figure out how to do this with AI first before we hire someone." What do you think about that?
- TDThomas Dohmke
I think it's a reflection of, you know, a fast-changing market and a lot of uncertainty, uh, both, you know, in the political, uh, uh, environment and in the tech environment of where things are going. And the natural tendency to do is to go slower a little bit.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Um, and you may- might decide, you know, some people are no longer the right folks in my company for that kind of environment, where things are moving incredibly fast, where you're almost forced to use AI to keep up with the competition, right? Like, the realization I think that many companies had in the last few months is that if we have employees that say, "We don't wanna use AI," that ultimately means our- we as a company are no longer set up for success. 'Cause our competitors are all using AI, or they're mandating AI. And I think this is the transition phase we're going through, but I believe very quickly, uh, we're going to see, uh, uh, an acceleration. And you already see, you know, things like, uh, Mark Zuckerberg, uh, uh, getting the Scale, Scale AI team-
- MMMarina Mogilko
$15 billion
- TDThomas Dohmke
... into the company. It's, uh... I, I think that shows where Mark's head is and where he believes the future is going to be, and he's going- he's willing to invest into it.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah, yeah. What would you say to
- 11:02 – 12:28
Learning to code? why teens have the edge
- MMMarina Mogilko
coders who are learning how to code right now? What should they focus on-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah
- MMMarina Mogilko
... to be able to get a job?
- TDThomas Dohmke
Learn with AI. I think the, the biggest upside that young people have is that they are adopting new technology much faster than those that are in, in our day-to-day, right? Like, when you're in a day-to-day job, you have so much work, and you have all your meetings and all the emails and all the things you have to do, that you barely have any time to learn, while young people that are still in school or in college have a lot of time to learn. And often, you know, young folks are much more open-minded to explore these and, and adopt these new things. It's, you know, when you go to your parents, and you're like, "Oh, you're old," because you're listening to all this music from the past, or-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... you're still watching linear TV-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... and, and, and those kind of things. And I think, though, the, the next generation of developers will grow up with AI. They will- in the same way that, you know, the Gen Z, uh, uh, has grown up with, uh, with smartphones. Um, while in my generation, I didn't have a smartphone until I was, like, 20. Well, I had- didn't have a cell phone until I was, like, early 20s, and then I didn't have a smartphone until I was already in my 30s.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm-hmm.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Right? And so I think that's- we're going to see a new generation of software developers, that for them, using an, a set of agents is, is just going to be natural.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Just... And they're going to have that when they're writing an email. They're going to have that when they're planning a trip. Uh, they're going to have that on the trip and, of course, in their work environment, uh, across, you know, the coding a- skills, but everything else as well in, in professional life.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Do you think everyone should try vibe coding today, or you think
- 12:28 – 14:22
Best platform to start vibe coding
- MMMarina Mogilko
it's too early for everyone?
- TDThomas Dohmke
... I think it's a- about the right time. You know, there's enough tools, um, and enough AI, uh, systems like ChatGPT and Claude that have some form of vibe coding built in, um, OpenAI launched-
- MMMarina Mogilko
You have to copy the code, right, and insert?
- TDThomas Dohmke
Uh, not with, uh... OpenAI has Codex, um, which, which you know, lets you do some of those things, uh, uh, within, within the OpenAI environment or ChatGPT environment. Uh, uh, but you're right, there are some tools where you still have to know-
- MMMarina Mogilko
How to deploy
- TDThomas Dohmke
... where to put it-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah, yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... and, and, and what a, what a GitHub repository even is, or what GitHub is, for that matter. And then there's technologies like Vercel, Viziro, uh, Lovable, Bolt-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Right
- TDThomas Dohmke
... where you can actually get, just get started without any technical background. What you also see if you, if you follow Reddit threads of people, you know, reporting on their experience is that you do- will get stuck, right? That's the nature of this-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... is either you're not asking deep enough, or you're giving it-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Or you just don't know what to ask
- TDThomas Dohmke
... not enough problems.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Uh, or then you're probably getting it done, but it looks crappy, or it- it's very simple, or you're going really to the, to the edge of the technology, and then you're going to get stuck if you don't know how to, how to go into the source code and make modifications.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
But yeah, I think that Manus is the other one. Manus, um, uh, uh, uh, who is, uh, this, uh, Chinese startup that, uh, uh, brought this, uh, agent, uh, to market, where you can do vibe coding in the sense of a consumer specifies what they want to build, and then it builds you this, uh, web page or web app right in the chat tool.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm.
- TDThomas Dohmke
So you're not... You're ne- never even launching anything or deploying it or any, any of the developer activities. You're just asking it to build you a tracking for your kids' allowance or, or the trip to Tokyo or, you know, those, those kind of personalized apps that are only useful... Your, your workout tracker-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm-hmm
- TDThomas Dohmke
... that are only useful for you, and where you, in the past, would have downloaded an app from the App Store. And now, and now you're using, uh, such an agentic system.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Interesting. Oh, that's, that's fascinating.
- 14:22 – 15:03
AI vs you – who has better ideas?
- MMMarina Mogilko
Do you think we're going to the world where AI can generate better ideas than us?
- TDThomas Dohmke
I think AI can help us to generate better ideas, 'cause AI is also incredibly powerful for your own reflections. Like, you know, putting your notes into, into an AI system like ChatGPT and say, "Hey, what am I missing?" Or, "What else could I be thinking about?" Or, "If you take this and combine it with something else, what, what could come out of this?" So I think the reasoning capabilities, the cha- chain of thought that, that these AI systems have, combined with your own ideas, with your triggers, you know, with the things that you, you know, that keep you up at night because you're so excited about
- 15:03 – 15:48
AGI by 2030?
- TDThomas Dohmke
this, I think those still come from the human, but the AI is going to help us to explore those, to put them into a pitch deck, uh, or-
- MMMarina Mogilko
That's for the next five years. Let's talk about AGI. Do you think it's gonna be 2030?
- TDThomas Dohmke
Depends on, depends on how you define AGI. So you have to define AGI first.
- MMMarina Mogilko
What, what's AGI for you?
- TDThomas Dohmke
I don't know. I think, you know, the, the arguments are on both sides. On the one side, you could say the models that are powering these AI agents today are already more intelligent than what you and I could do-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... certainly in terms of how much knowledge-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah, absolutely
- TDThomas Dohmke
... they have stored, um, uh, uh, you know, how they can reason over this knowledge, how they even, you know, can summarize things in, in such a short amount of time. You couldn't read, you know, a 500-page book and summarize it, so they are more intelligent or more capable-
- MMMarina Mogilko
And they've also seen all
- 15:48 – 17:10
Why AI needs to be more creative
- MMMarina Mogilko
of the ideas
- TDThomas Dohmke
... yeah, perspectives. But they're not creative. I think emotion plays a big role-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm-hmm
- TDThomas Dohmke
... uh, in, in, in creativity. Um, you know, and, and they have no emotion. Even though Mr. Data on Star Trek had no emotion either, and, uh, they're not sentient. And I think if you define AGI or ASI as that, I, I don't know how long it will take because we haven't seen any research of how you can implement emotion within an, within an AI system.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm.
- TDThomas Dohmke
And so we- we're going to be on a journey. Um, you know, Waymo in San Francisco is, is fascinating, what it is.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Everywhere. Everywhere, yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Well, now it's, it's coming to more cities.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Um, uh, self-driving cars, you know, feel like AGIs. Um, I think vibe coding, to some degree, feels like AGI. Um, but if you define AGI as in it needs to have this human instinct and the human, you know, collaboration, and the, the idea in the morning of doing something completely new, I don't know how far away we are from this. It's certainly not tomorrow.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Okay, so you're not scared, or are you? Like-
- TDThomas Dohmke
I'm excited.
- MMMarina Mogilko
What's your level of... So you're not scared at all?
- TDThomas Dohmke
I'm not scared at all. I... You know, as long as I need, still need to remind my kids three times to empty the dishwasher [laughing]
- MMMarina Mogilko
[laughing]
- TDThomas Dohmke
As long as there are no- is no robot that can actually do that, not even a prototype, I mean, you know-
- MMMarina Mogilko
I think it's coming soon still. Like, I'm-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah.
- MMMarina Mogilko
There are already robots walking in Silicon Valley, like the...
- TDThomas Dohmke
Well-
- MMMarina Mogilko
... it's coming
- TDThomas Dohmke
... but, like, they cannot really take a plate out of the-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... craziness that's the dishwasher.
- MMMarina Mogilko
But I'm-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah
- MMMarina Mogilko
... I'm seeing the progress,
- 17:10 – 18:05
Skills every kid should learn
- MMMarina Mogilko
how fast it happens, and I'm not even... Like, what do you teach your kids? What do you tell them? Like, what are they gonna be when they grow up? What are the skills they need to acquire now?
- TDThomas Dohmke
No, I grew up in, uh, East Germany before the wall fell, and I was 12 years old when Germany got reunited. And I tell them, "Look, you know, you're growing up in one of the most exciting times that I have, you know, seen in my, in my life, and there's so much technology around you." You can build a company today not only out of a garage in Silicon Valley, you can build a company out of a garage anywhere in the world. Uh, because all you need is, you know, a good internet connection, a laptop, or even a cell phone, and a bit of-
- MMMarina Mogilko
And a developer, right?
- TDThomas Dohmke
... and a bit of vibe coding. [laughing]
- MMMarina Mogilko
[laughing]
- TDThomas Dohmke
Well, yeah, but you can become a developer if you want to. Everybody can now become a developer.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm-hmm.
- TDThomas Dohmke
They don't have to get access to books and magazines and, and, uh-
- MMMarina Mogilko
That's true
- TDThomas Dohmke
... and a computer club that's only in their town, uh, or what have you. And so I think from a software developer perspective, uh, it is, it is the most exciting time that developers have
- 18:05 – 19:10
Best time to be a developer
- TDThomas Dohmke
lived in because the dream of software development was always that I can take the idea that I have in my head on a Sunday morning, and by the evening, I have the app in the- up and running on my phone, right? And the reality today is I have the idea, and then I'm trying to figure out how do I take this problem and convert it into source code and libraries and, you know, how do I make rounded corners on a- on an iPhone app and, and, and those things. And by, by the time it's night, I haven't done anything. I have basically bootstrapped the project-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm-hmm
- TDThomas Dohmke
... you know, and set up a, a few things, and that was it.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah. So basically, what, what, what are you teaching your kids? Entrepreneurship?
- TDThomas Dohmke
... I'm teaching them to explore the world. I'm teaching them, you know, to how to solve problems on their own.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
I'm teaching them, or they're teaching themselves how to use AI, and, um, and I think, you know, be curious and open-minded.
- MMMarina Mogilko
I feel like you're one of the most positive people I interviewed [laughing] about AI.
- TDThomas Dohmke
[laughing]
- MMMarina Mogilko
There's a lot of people like-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah
- MMMarina Mogilko
... "I'm not sure. Probably 90% of the jobs-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah
- MMMarina Mogilko
-are gonna be gone," but you're, you're-
- TDThomas Dohmke
And I'm German. [laughing]
- MMMarina Mogilko
And you're German, so it's very... It gives me hope. Um, what would be, like, the last
- 19:10 – 20:27
Scared of AI taking jobs? listen to this
- MMMarina Mogilko
advice you would give to people who are watching-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah
- MMMarina Mogilko
-and still have fear that AI is gonna take their job?
- TDThomas Dohmke
Well, I think the best fear, uh, the best way to work around the fear that you have around your job is to adopt the technology, learn about it, learn how to use it, to up- upskill yourself into whatever the next job is going to be. You know, if, if you fear that your job is going to be replaced, um, because AI can do it, uh, then the best path out of that is to become the expert in using this AI system. 'Cause there's al- I think there's always going to be a human that orchestrates, that, you know, is the conductor of all these AI agents.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Okay, so you don't see the future where AI spots the problem, generates solution, codes-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Look, you know, there's reasons why we do responsible AI, why we do... You know, why we test every model, why there's security, guardrails, red teaming, or, like, you know, teams trying to hack the model, uh, figuring out what the system prompt is, doing prompt injection. That is certainly things that we need to work on, in the same way that we need to work on software security and traffic safety, and every technology that we have in life has risks and, and rewards.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
And I think we should focus, focus on the rewards when we wanna predict what the future is, and we should work on the risks on, on our day-to-day and make sure that the risks don't materialize.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Okay. So your favorite A-
- 20:27 – 21:48
Top 3 AI tools you should try
- MMMarina Mogilko
l- what's the top three favorite AI apps?
- TDThomas Dohmke
Well, of course, Copilot, uh, is my number one, as we're working o- on this every-
- MMMarina Mogilko
You use it internally as well-
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah
- MMMarina Mogilko
... to code the code? Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah, everybody at GitHub. Um, not even, not only the coders, everybody's using Copilot-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm
- TDThomas Dohmke
... so, and product managers, designers-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Nice
- TDThomas Dohmke
... HR, legal-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm
- TDThomas Dohmke
... finance, everybody is using GitHub. Um, that's the nature of GitHub, is that everybody is on GitHub, um, and is on Copilot. Um, I really love, you know, ChatGPT for, like, my day-to-day, you know, o- other questions. Um, um, I have it on my Mac on, you know, Control+Space, and it just opens the toolbar, and it's, I think, more and more replacing the typical internet search.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Yeah.
- TDThomas Dohmke
And, um, hmm, what's the third AI system that's my favorite? I have a, you know, certain, Granola, for example, on my app to transcribe, uh, calls.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Mm.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Um, so that comes to mind, um, I f- I, I find that really useful, for example, for interviews. I think it's, uh, important to call it out to the person you're talking to, that you're, you know, transcribing the-
- MMMarina Mogilko
Recording, yeah
- TDThomas Dohmke
... the call and having AI, uh, write a summary. Um, but it's those things, and then obviously, you know, as I'm not very creative in terms of painting, and so having, you know, uh, uh, one of these models create an image for me for, for, for a PowerPoint presentation, uh, I find that, uh, super useful as well. [bell dinging]
- MMMarina Mogilko
That's awesome. Thank you so much for being so positive about the future.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah, thank you for having me.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Thank you for this conversation.
- TDThomas Dohmke
Yeah.
- MMMarina Mogilko
Thank you.
Episode duration: 21:48
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