We are People of Programming—people who use, build, study, and support computer programs. We deal with computer programs for various reasons: to create value, to make a living, to educate, and to entertain ourselves and others. We believe computer programs are of great practical and aesthetic value to all.
Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have upended our world. Across all organizations spanning industry, government, academia, and independent communities, there is an unprecedented reallocation of resources towards the further advancement of AI, at the cost of nearly all other areas of computing: engineers struggle to convince managers to approve non-AI-related work, founders struggle to attract investors for non-AI-related companies, and scientists struggle to obtain funding for non-AI-related research. People controlling resources in computing—people who benefited from our work to accumulate such resources—have abandoned us.
We do not need those people, as long as we can find and support each other. We believe People of Programming persist at all levels of the computing world: there are users who still want to use computer programs, there are students who still want to study computer programs, there are teachers who still want to teach computer programs, there are builders who still want to build computer programs, and there are investors who still want to invest in computer programs, even if the computer programs have nothing to do with AI. But because we are a minority, our voices are being drowned out by the clanking of machines that try to displace us.
We hereby declare:
We will continue to do so, even if the computer programs have nothing to do with AI. Most importantly, we will continue to support each other, as People of Programming.
Remy Wang (professor, UCLA)