Goodbye Tests, Hello Experience!💪

We were promised flying cars. Instead, we got AI that judges our coding and might write our next sprint.

Because the bots aren’t coming. They’re already here. And they’re not waiting for instructions, according to DeepMind.

It’s Happening Prompting is Going

In their new paper Welcome to the Era of Experience, David Silver and Richard Sutton lay it out that the old way of building AI sucks. Feeding AI static data and expecting miracles is like feeding a bodybuilder celery sticks and expecting a world record.

Silver and Sutton argue that “streams” are the future. Prompting is going to go out of the window. They point out that today’s AI models are trapped in their current state, with no question of remembering, growing or questioning. 

Enter Streams. The long, continuous experiences where AI agents can form goals, seek rewards, adapt, and self-improve without needing a babysitter every two minutes. Your baby-like prompts (“make me an image of Elon Musk wearing two hats” aren’t cutting it anymore.

The Future

Humans will still define top-level goals (for now). Stuff like “how can I code a delivery app” or “why don’t I have any friends” (yeah, that might just be me) can be delegated to agents. The grind, the learning and figuring out the details is being outsourced to AI.

Sure, while we can still publish those top-level goals there is still a demand for human labour. The thing is experiential AI could eclipse human knowledge entirely. 

I know, Wikipedia might no longer be the single bestest source of truth in the world. AI will self-generate experiences and probably write better music than Barbra Streisand.

Where Will it all Go Wrong?

Sure, your infant child is probably going to be entertained that you were once a software developer, as their AI tutor tells them about the rise of the machines.

But that’s the good outcome. Autonomous AI means humans have fewer chances to “course correct” when things go wrong. Which, considering the state of modern software releases, fills me with no confidence at all.

Look I’ve had a manager who wanted to “delete the project” when they first started with the company. So perhaps the first jobs to go will be managers? Or at least be a lead who actually notices when they’re pissing me off.

Conclusion

Look on the bright side. We’re all here, and maybe AI will simply make us more productive and better at our jobs.

Maybe, just maybe.