--- title: Meet the developers rejecting AI | daily.dev description: A growing number of developers are publicly rejecting AI coding tools, even at the cost of jobs, clients, and career stability. Developer Brett Chalupa's viral... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/meet-the-developers-rejecting-ai-mgfmaufls twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Meet the developers rejecting AI | daily.dev og:description: A growing number of developers are publicly rejecting AI coding tools, even at the cost of jobs, clients, and career stability. Developer Brett Chalupa's viral... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/meet-the-developers-rejecting-ai-mgfmaufls og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/mGfmauFls.png og:image:alt: Meet the developers rejecting AI og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Meet the developers rejecting AI **[LeadDev](https://daily.dev/sources/leaddev)** · 9 min read · 223 upvotes · 72 comments ## Summary A growing number of developers are publicly rejecting AI coding tools, even at the cost of jobs, clients, and career stability. Developer Brett Chalupa's viral YouTube video announcing he's quitting AI coding drew over 900,000 views and struck a nerve, prompting others like Anthony Manning-Franklin, Pieter Groenendijk, and Jared White to share similar decisions. Cited reasons include eroded craft and skills, ethical concerns about environmental impact and scraped training data, and real mental health costs like depression and existential dread. Some have already lost clients, missed job offers, or left the industry entirely, while a referenced arXiv study on psychological costs of AI adoption found widespread craft identity disruption and meaning erosion among developers a year after their company mandated AI use. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why are some developers refusing to use AI coding tools even at the risk of losing their jobs? Developers cite eroded craft and creative satisfaction, ethical objections to AI's environmental impact and use of scraped training data without consent, and real mental health costs like depression and existential dread. Some report losing clients or job offers after refusing to adopt agentic coding tools, with one former CTO saying he has effectively left the industry over the issue. _Developers weighing the human cost of AI coding follow these career debates on daily.dev._ ### What did the psychological study on AI adoption in software engineering find? A study published on arXiv analyzed a software development services company one year after it mandated AI adoption and found widespread craft identity disruption, meaning and satisfaction erosion, cognitive and workload intensification, and uncertainty distress among engineers. The findings mirror personal accounts from developers describing depression and loss of purpose after switching to AI-assisted coding. _Engineers assessing AI's toll on team morale can track this kind of research on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@chelmix** · 60 upvotes > Maybe I'm lucky but coding by hand still exists where I work **@kirska** · 14 upvotes > "Company mandated AI use" sounds like a nightmare. Let people work the way they want to work. Judge them by their actual output, regardless of how they got there. A developer that uses AI and generates slop is not any better than a talented developer that doesn't use AI but generates high quality code in a slightly longer time period. **@daniel8000** · 12 upvotes > Its very democratic to have varied opinions on AI. But inside the corporation, there is authoritarian order, so you cant have opinion conflicting with corporation's strategy. Thats why I try to own two separate identities. **@devmandan** · 4 upvotes > Not a fan either. I like writing code. I do it home. I do it at work. Why would I want to give up my hobby and enjoyment for a generator? Plus it's still slop despite the many "advancements". **@confidentcoding** · 4 upvotes > I like to refer to myself as "AI Ambivalent". I don't need to reject them, I don't need to embrace them entirely. [I demote AI's role](https://larsfaye.com/articles/agentic-coding-is-a-trap) and stick to utilizing it for my three Rs: rote, refactor, research. > > The societal impacts start to feel a bit arbitrary to me. Like, if you own a cellphones (of any type) or a computer or an electric car, they are [built off the backs of tremendous suffering](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/01/child-labour-behind-smart-phone-and-electric-car-batteries/) to mine the previous metals. Humans... --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#github](https://daily.dev/tags/github), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#ethical-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ethical-ai) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/meet-the-developers-rejecting-ai-mgfmaufls) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Meet the developers rejecting AI","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/meet-the-developers-rejecting-ai-mgfmaufls","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/meet-the-developers-rejecting-ai-mgfmaufls"},"datePublished":"2026-09-21T10:17:06.681Z","dateModified":"2026-09-21T10:17:28.184Z","description":"A growing number of developers are publicly rejecting AI coding tools, even at the cost of jobs, clients, and career stability. Developer Brett Chalupa's viral...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8e8fab1ba0fd06387c4e4e3fbf2388db?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8e8fab1ba0fd06387c4e4e3fbf2388db?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"LeadDev","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"LeadDev","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--u_Q34nzh--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774514111/logos/leaddev?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/leaddev"},"commentCount":72,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/meet-the-developers-rejecting-ai-mgfmaufls","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":223},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":72}],"keywords":"career,github,ai-coding,ethical-ai","timeRequired":"PT9M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LeadDev","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/leaddev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Meet the developers rejecting AI"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/meet-the-developers-rejecting-ai-mgfmaufls","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Maybe I’m lucky but coding by hand still exists where I work","datePublished":"2026-09-21T12:34:08.208Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mGfmauFls#c-y2xKTcgiL","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"MiSz","url":"https://daily.dev/chelmix","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/95591662?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":60}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"“Company mandated AI use” sounds like a nightmare. Let people work the way they want to work. Judge them by their actual output, regardless of how they got there. A developer that uses AI and generates slop is not any better than a talented developer that doesn’t use AI but generates high quality code in a slightly longer time period.","datePublished":"2026-09-21T15:21:46.707Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mGfmauFls#c-nnXChH4hw","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Patterson","url":"https://daily.dev/kirska","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/7443852?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":14}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Its very democratic to have varied opinions on AI. But inside the corporation, there is authoritarian order, so you cant have opinion conflicting with corporation’s strategy. Thats why I try to own two separate identities.","datePublished":"2026-09-21T13:41:06.368Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mGfmauFls#c-BVhxj8y86","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/daniel8000","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--F_RltCZK--/f_auto/v1738746891/avatars/avatar_SOwG1kJqf6HK6TkGmZH45"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":12}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Not a fan either. I like writing code. I do it home. I do it at work. Why would I want to give up my hobby and enjoyment for a generator? Plus it’s still slop despite the many “advancements”.","datePublished":"2026-09-21T15:47:56.768Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mGfmauFls#c-RQGIblAz0","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/devmandan","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ypn2TBF9--/f_auto/v1786619820/avatars/avatar_qDApMJOupymFKtjAmmtB4?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I like to refer to myself as “AI Ambivalent”. I don’t need to reject them, I don’t need to embrace them entirely. I demote AI’s role and stick to utilizing it for my three Rs: rote, refactor, research.\nThe societal impacts start to feel a bit arbitrary to me. Like, if you own a cellphones (of any type) or a computer or an electric car, they are built off the backs of tremendous suffering to mine the previous metals. Humans have tried to jump to their deaths in the factories where the motherboards are made. If you’re not going to consider boycotting those, I would say there’s a bit of hypocrisy built in and you’d need to find a good justification for that. Drawing a line in the sand around AI on that principle feels a bit like virtue signaling, because you can’t really move in any direction without using something that suffering went into making (both human or animal).","datePublished":"2026-09-21T19:43:59.185Z","dateModified":"2026-09-21T19:49:10.351Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mGfmauFls#c-tVEI8dAgC","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lars Faye | Confident Coding","url":"https://daily.dev/confidentcoding","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--OGZu5DEc--/f_auto/v1772569630/avatars/avatar_umWZ9aQAng34qk5aaJl2q?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/meet-the-developers-rejecting-ai-mgfmaufls#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why are some developers refusing to use AI coding tools even at the risk of losing their jobs?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Developers cite eroded craft and creative satisfaction, ethical objections to AI's environmental impact and use of scraped training data without consent, and real mental health costs like depression and existential dread. Some report losing clients or job offers after refusing to adopt agentic coding tools, with one former CTO saying he has effectively left the industry over the issue. Developers weighing the human cost of AI coding follow these career debates on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What did the psychological study on AI adoption in software engineering find?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A study published on arXiv analyzed a software development services company one year after it mandated AI adoption and found widespread craft identity disruption, meaning and satisfaction erosion, cognitive and workload intensification, and uncertainty distress among engineers. The findings mirror personal accounts from developers describing depression and loss of purpose after switching to AI-assisted coding. Engineers assessing AI's toll on team morale can track this kind of research on daily.dev."}}]} ```