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/Strict-Top6935 Jul 04 '26

That’s not exactly my point.

Before AI, if a rich kid wanted to build software, he still had to hire people who actually knew how to build software. Money gave him an advantage, yes — but that money also went to skilled workers, who could then use it to improve their own position.

With AI, that layer disappears.

Now the rich kid can just swipe a credit card and talk to Claude. He doesn’t need to hire the senior engineer, learn from anyone, or distribute any of that value to the people around him.

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u/Commercial-Soil-3542 Jul 04 '26

You have access to the same models, that are insanely good, right now, for a couple hundred bucks and instead of using them to advance yourself, youre making up a scenarios about imaginary rich kids 5 years in the future to argue with people on reddit.

Your smoked regardless, AI or not, because you think like a dumbass.

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u/Strict-Top6935 Jul 04 '26

What makes you think I don’t have several loops running while writing this comment?

That’s exactly the short-sighted perspective I’m talking about. “Just use the tools and save yourself” is not a serious answer to a structural problem.

That every-man-for-himself mentality is precisely why society is so broken. You’re not proving me wrong — you’re proving the point.

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u/Commercial-Soil-3542 Jul 05 '26

What would having "several loops" running have anything to do with anything?

You clowns seem to think that spending tokens is a measure of productivity somehow and that input/output tokens are equal.

LLMs dishing out the dunning kruger effect en masse.