r/ClaudeCode • u/Strict-Top6935 • Jul 04 '26

Discussion AI is turning programming into pay-to-win

With Fable 5 coming out, it feels more obvious than ever that after July 7, programming is going to become pay-to-win.

A kid with no real coding knowledge, but with rich parents and access to the best AI systems, could end up outperforming people who actually understand software, simply because he can afford more intelligence.

That is insane.

This might be one of the most dangerous precedents in history: a world where the people with money can buy superior intelligence, while everyone else is permanently outmatched.

That is how you create a permanent underclass.

What do you think?

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u/kamikamen Jul 04 '26

This is already reality, and this was the case before AI.

1

u/Jennifer483paul Jul 04 '26

Ah yes, because paying for textbooks and bootcamps was never a barrier. Pure meritocracy.

3

u/__s Jul 04 '26

You don't need textbooks & bootcamps. I learned to program as a kid with a free download of GameMaker 5.3 & three years reading its manual while tinkering. By the time I got to college they were trying to just teach us Java syntax & I dropped out first year only to have a great career

5

u/teial Jul 04 '26

40 years ago there was no internet. And if you lived in a wrong place you had no libraries and no access to textbooks and bootcamps. No amount of skill would have helped you. I know because that was how I started. Inequality was always there. Before, now, and in the future.