You might think that AI is coming for developer jobs. After all, AWS CEO Matt Garman predicted most developers won’t be coding within two years, and former Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque gives programmers simply five years.

But the latest data from GitHub tells a surprisingly different story.

According to a recent reportdeveloper activity reached unprecedented levels in 2024. The total number of projects on GitHub increased 25% year-over-year to 518 million, while contributions reached 5.2 billion.

More than a million open source managers, students, and educators now use GitHub Copilot for free.

“Our data also shows that many more people are joining the global developer community,” the Github report reads. “Over the past year, more developers have joined GitHub and engaged in open source and public projects (in some cases, thanks to AI).”

The advent of AI accelerates, but does not replace, development, at least not for the moment.

The report shows that developers created more than 70,000 new generative AI projects in 2024, a 98% year-over-year increase. Public generative AI projects like home-assistant/core and Ollama (generative text) attract significant contributions, especially from newcomers.

This shift toward open source AI development, rather than closed proprietary systems, is also critical to the evolution of AI technology.

The trend shows that AI development is becoming more transparent and collaborative rather than concentrated in a few large companies. This is important because open source AI projects enable public review of models, enable faster innovation through community contributions, and democratize access to AI technology – especially crucial for developers in emerging markets who might otherwise be unable to work with cutting-edge AI tools. .

The Pythons reach first place on JavaScript marks a historic change, the first such change since 2014.

That might not mean much on its own, but Python has been growing in popularity, especially in fields like data science and machine learning. In contrast, Javascript is essential in fields such as web development, so an increase in its use to the point of becoming the most popular language may indicate that developers find AI more profitable or attractive than working on projects Web.

Notably, Jupyter Notebooks, open source computing environments that allow users to run AI models and other programs, have also gained popularity this year.

The transformation is global. The Indian developer community is snowballing and is expected to overtake the United States to become the largest community on GitHub by 2028. Notable growth has taken place in regions outside of North America and India. Europe, with Brazil, India and Nigeria showing particularly strong momentum.

India saw a 95% increase in contributions to generative AI projects year-over-year, while France saw a 70% increase. Emerging tech hubs like the Netherlands (291%), Ethiopia (242%), and Costa Rica (171%) saw significant growth in contributions to AI projects.

But if the report shows exciting prospects, why are developers and other tech workers still wary of this technology?

The rapid adoption of AI, highlighted by McKinsey’s latest global study reporting a 72% AI adoption ratecan help understand the mixed feelings within the tech community.

Developers fear being left behind by tools that simplify coding and automate repetitive tasks, and seeing how AI projects like those on the GitHub platform develop; it’s easy to understand how fears of a role shift fester beneath the excitement.

Elon Musk is also aware of these concerns, predicting an “existential”crisis of meaning” as AI becomes capable of performing human tasks “better” than humans.

Speaking at the All-In Summit 2024, Musk highlighted a future in which traditional roles could disappear, pushing humanity to redefine its purpose in a world where tasks can be accomplished by AI.

Workers across industries are taking proactive steps to protect themselves as AI reshapes job roles. Many are looking to unions and collective bargaining to ensure safeguards are in place, as seen in the entertainment industry, where unions like SAG-AFTRA have pushed backk against the uncontrolled use of AI in creative fields.

There is also an increase in demand for “AI introductory” training programs, which aim to help workers across sectors understand and work with AI tools rather than being replaced by them.

Although the concerns are well-founded, the World Economic Forum estimates that AI will wipe out 85 million jobs – GitHub data suggests AI’s dystopian future is not yet upon us, and instead of replacing developers, AI appears to be empowering them to shape the future of technology on their own terms.

Edited by Sébastien Sinclair And Josh Quittner