IBM taps AI to translate COBOL code to Java | TechCrunch
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IBM's new product offering, Code Assistant for IBM Z, leverages a generative AI model to translate COBOL code to Java.

It’s not the 1st time a language/tool will be lost to the annals of the job market, eg VB6 or FoxPro. Though previously all such cases used to happen gradually, giving most people enough time to adapt to the changes.

I wonder what’s it going to be like this time now that the machine, w/ the help of humans of course, can accomplish an otherwise multi-month risky corporate project much faster? What happens to all those COBOL developer jobs?

Pray share your thoughts, esp if you’re a COBOL professional and have more context around the implication of this announcement 🙏

  • Pavlichenko_Fan_Club [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    15·
    10 months ago

    Oh FFS there is nothing magical about COBOL like its some kind of sword in the stone which only a chosen few can draw. COBOL is simple(-ish), COBOL is verbose. That’s why there is so much of it.

    The reason you don’t see new developers flocking to these mythical high-paying COBOL jobs is its not about the language, but rather about maintaining these gianourmous, mission-critical applications that are basically black boxes due to the loss of institutional knowledge. Very high risk with almost no tangible, immediate reward–so don’t touch it. Not something you can just throw a new developer at and hope for the best, the only person who knew this stuff was some guy named “John”, and he retired 15 years ago! Etc, etc.

    Also this is IBM were talking about, so purely buzzword-driven development. IBM isn’t exactly known for pushing the envelope recently. Plus transpilers have existed as a concept since… Forever basically? Doubt anything more will come from this other than upselling existing IBM contracts who are already replacing COBOL.