Eric Schmidt says AI has outpaced his programming, urges youth to become AI architects
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told a Blackstone podcast that modern AI coding tools can write code he could not, and he advises young programmers to focus on directing AI rather than writing code themselves.
During a conversation on Blackstone's "Inside Blackstone" podcast, 71-year-old Eric Schmidt, former chief executive of Google, admitted that AI coding assistants now produce code he could not write even at his peak as a programmer. He described his own past skill level and said the field has effectively shifted. Schmidt urged aspiring technologists to master coding fundamentals so they can issue precise commands to AI systems, likening the role to that of a house architect rather than a builder.
He referenced tools such as Claude Code, OpenAI Codex and future Google offerings as examples of this new paradigm. Schmidt highlighted that AI-first companies, including the 30-person startup Daytona and Anthropic, have engineers overseeing several AI agents, with most of their code written by AI. This trend, he suggested, will turn the upcoming workforce into managers of intelligent code generators.
Why it matters
The shift from manual coding to AI-driven development could reshape tech careers and how software is built.
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