I just kept noticing how AI SREs are generally framed as nameless "gonna replace this role" products, whereas coding assistants are framed as partners and are given names.
I decided to expand on this by backing it with data, borrowing ideas from how older AI assistants named after women (eg. cortana, siri, alexa) were all coded like secretaries to argue that the framing devices used to create these new AI products reveals a lot about how the builders and the buyers perceive the roles these tools are supposed to support or replace.
I also take a bit of time to write about the challenges and risks of picking self-limiting analogies in how you frame and construct your system even though it is initially helpful to make progress, and what that might imply for software engineers going forward.