As AI becomes capable of writing more software, could hand-coded apps eventually become the digital equivalent of handmade furniture or artisan jewelry? In this edition of the Web News, Matt and Mike debate whether people will ever pay a premium for software written by humans, whether users actually care how an app was built, and why the outcome may matter far more than the tools developers use. They also discuss AI backlash in gaming, open-source software, the “software is dead” conversation, and why staying close to what users actually value could matter more than ever.
As AI writes more and more code, could human-written software eventually become an artisan product? Handmade furniture, jewelry, and other crafts often command a premium because people value the human craftsmanship behind them - but would anyone feel the same way about an app? We debate whether “hand-coded” software could ever become a selling point, whether users actually care how their software is made, and why developers may need to focus less on the process and more on what the end user actually values.
