> shipping fast and solving the immediate problem, NOT code quality and craft
This is also what puts many companies out of business and create huge security issues. If AI is not fixing this but making it worse, then that's not improving software engineering.
> This is also what puts many companies out of business
Those companies you mention just overdid it. Like with everything else on the market, there's a limit to how much value/quality you can optimize away before the end result stops being fit for purpose. However, existence of this limit doesn't stop companies from racing to the very edge of it.
> and create huge security issues.
Security is mostly a solved problem.
Yes, it truly is - at least from the business point of view.
Nobody except attackers and infosec people cares about the mathematical and technical details, or whether your stack or coding practice is secure enough. Not the customers, as they neither understand any of this, nor could do anything about it even if they did. Not the companies, since they manage it at a higher level of abstraction. Whatever holes and vulnerabilities the AI coding introduces, the industry will account for it. Some headlines will be made, some stocks will move, and nothing will change.
FWIW, I don't like either of these things. I'm an engineer in my heart, so it pains me to be constantly reminded that our work is merely means to an end, and matters only to the extent it can't be substituted by some alternative.
This is also what puts many companies out of business and create huge security issues. If AI is not fixing this but making it worse, then that's not improving software engineering.