They Said AI Would Make Engineers Obsolete
Philippe Kahn, the Santa Cruz inventor who created the first camera phone photograph in 1997, pushes back on predictions that AI will make software engineers obsolete. He argues the opposite: AI is the next chapter in a long line of tools, from compilers to high-level languages, that expanded what engineers can do. Generating code is only one piece of the job. Judgment, trade-offs, privacy, and accountability still require people. Kahn calls for "enlightened engineers" who pair curiosity and rigor with intellectual humility, asking not only "Can we build this?" but "What happens when we do?" More powerful tools, he writes, demand greater responsibility. Read Kahn’s LinkedIn post to learn more.
Related Articles
Portrait of a Titan: Philippe Kahn — From the first camera phone photo in a Santa Cruz delivery room to Fullpower-AI, the origin story of SCW's first Titan of Tech.
The Cosmic Journey of Philippe Kahn — A 10-year Tempur Sealy licensing deal puts Kahn's AI biosensing work into bedrooms worldwide.
Beyond Hours: Philippe Kahn, Fullpower-AI, and the New Science of Sleep Quality — Kahn argues that objective data must meet lived human experience, the same people-first thinking behind enlightened engineering.
Why That Earthquake Woke You Up — Fullpower's Sleeptracker-AI data turns a Boulder Creek quake into an accidental experiment in rigorous, curious science.
Fullpower-AI Launches Sleeptracker-AI — The world's largest sleep dataset opens to healthcare and clinical research.
AI Horizons — SCW's New Tech gathering on how AI is reshaping education, government, energy, and engineering careers.

