Simon Willison, Django core developer and LLM toolkit expert (created tools like LLM CLI, Datasette), mentioned a term in the latest episode of Oxide and Friends podcast called "Deep Blue Moment."

It refers to: when AI surpasses your core skills that you take pride in, leading to a collective psychological crisis.

Originating from the shock in the international chess community after Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM's Deep Blue in 1997.

Now it's programmers' turn.

Simon said that the amount of hand-written code he produces has dropped to single-digit percentages. The debate over AI writing code will be over by 2026.

But there is an economic paradox called the "Jevons Paradox":
When the cost of a resource drops significantly, demand either doesn't grow (skills depreciate) or is greatly stimulated (skills become more valuable).

As the cost of code production approaches zero, are engineers more valuable or being phased out?

Simon's judgment is: within six years, no one will be paid solely for "coding." But software engineering won't disappear; roles will evolve profoundly—what AI automates are syntax conversions, leaving architecture, judgment, and system understanding.

The Deep Blue Moment has already arrived. But the international chess community ultimately learned to coexist with AI and became stronger.

Programmers will too.