[!todo] Seed note. A starting point, not a finished note yet.
The verification gap is the distance between how cheaply AI generates a change and how expensively a human confirms it is correct, safe, and well-designed. Generation cost is collapsing while verification cost is not, because verifying still requires reading, testing, and holding the system in your head, and it grows with the complexity of the change rather than the speed of the tool. This is why “AI writes the code” does not straightforwardly mean “engineers are obsolete”: the reviewing, specifying, and judgment work moves to the front of the job and becomes the scarce, paid skill. It connects to the reliability premium of O-Ring Theory, where preventing one bad task from spoiling the product is worth more as volume automates. Seeded from Software Careers Over the Next Decade.