❯ DeepSeek engineer Liu Shengyu discusses changing roles, as elite kernel optimization begins yielding ground to AI collaboration

Kernel engineer’s essayOn September 14, DeepSeek machine-learning systems engineer Liu Shengyu published a roughly 3,000-word essay, “I Have to Bury My Talent in Yesterday.” He described work on the main attention kernel for DeepSeek V4.1 and predicted that within six to twelve months, AI-written kernels may match or exceed those of the best human engineers. He did not say he would lose his job; he plans to focus on directing agents.

The work movesLiu studied in Peking University’s Turing program and has been called a “kernel immortal” by colleagues and the community. His main attention kernel became public with DeepSeek V4.1. Kernel engineers map model architectures onto chips and computing frameworks, balancing performance, memory and training cost. As AI enters code generation, performance search and tuning, scarcity shifts toward designing validation environments, selecting solutions and controlling risk.

Not simple replacementThe essay drew attention because it came from an engineer at the model-performance frontier, not from a generic jobs forecast. If elite practitioners are repositioning, employers must decide how to use deep technical talent rather than merely count eliminated roles. The division of labor between engineers and agents will determine whether expertise is amplified or rapidly commoditized after being encoded once.

▪ SIGNALAI may first consume the repetitive manual optimization time of top engineers, rather than the engineering job itself.