Describe what you need.We'll find the right AI.

DeepSeek Engineer Reflects on AI Progress and Leaving Hand-Written Operator Work

A translated blog post by a DeepSeek engineer (author of the main Attention operator in DeepSeek v4.1) reflecting on rapid AI progress and its impact on his career. He describes how AI advanced from simple chatbots to reasoning models and tool-using agents in just a few years, and how in his field of GPU operator design, AI went from a small helper to an expert capable of reading CUDA, PTX, and SASS code and optimizing operators independently. He expects AI to match or exceed his operator-writing skills within a year, forcing him to transition from hand-writing operators to becoming a 'mecha pilot' for AI Agents. He compares the loss of his craft to a master knitter replaced by a knitting machine, worries about students losing engineering skills by relying on AI for homework, and speculates society may trend toward either utopian abundance or a Cyberpunk-like future controlled by a few tech companies. He argues the most advanced AI should be open and cheap for everyone, states distrust of Anthropic or OpenAI holding AGI, and explains his choice to stay at DeepSeek because it open-sources powerful AI.