Sridhar Vembu has warned coders to look for alternative sources of livelihood as artificial intelligence (AI) technology gets better and better at generating new apps and websites without users having any technical knowledge.
In a post on X, Vembu cited the rapidly improving capabilities of AI models like Anthropic’s Claude, which recently built an entire C compiler, as proof that the technology industry is shifting rapidly. Notably, a C compiler is a tool that translates human-written C programming language code into machine-readable instructions.
“At this point, it is best for those of us who depend on writing code for a living to start considering alternative livelihoods. I include myself in this. I don't say this in panic, but with calm acceptance and embrace,” Vembu wrote in a post on X.
Vembu was quoting a post by a user on X who claimed to have created a Bhagavad Gita app on the App Store without knowing a single line of code.
The former Zoho CEO also said that he held detailed sessions with Google Gemini to figure out how the economy will be shaped by this AI revolution.
“It was like having an extremely intelligent economic philosopher debating you. I asked it to critique its own work and it did a fantastic job too,” Vembu said.
“As Gemini and I see this developing, the future could unfold in two ways, depending on who owns and collects rent on this technology,” he added.
Notably, Vembu’s remarks come shortly after he had criticised the hype around vibe coding, stating that natural-language, prompt-based coding oversimplifies a deeply layered craft and leads to unsustainable technical debt.
Vembu had also gone on to have a public feud with Garry Tan, who claimed that Zoho’s business would be among the first to be wiped out due to vibe coding.
“Vibe coding just piles up tech debt faster and faster until the whole thing collapses,” Vembu had said in a post on X.
Vembu’s predictions for the future of technology
Vembu further noted that the rise of AI systems could lead to two kinds of futures, depending on who “collects rent” on this technology: an optimistic future and a pessimistic future.
In his optimistic vision, Vembu states that the technology would become redundant and trivial, like digital watches today. He says this would lead to an increased human focus on “life, family, soil, water, nature, art, music, culture, sports, festivals, and faith”.
In his pessimistic vision, Vembu predicts that the technology would lead to “centralised control”.