I’m working on the front end of a transcription app. It’s a lot of moving buttons and labels around to get them where I want, but there’s no way I would ever be able to do it with a keyboard as fast as using an llm. Are we putting ourselves at a competitive disadvantage to big tech et. al. by being anti ai purists?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: ai is a tool. In some fields it improved productivity. Not using it might hurt.
Can I work my garden without power tools? Yes I can. Would I grow more tomatoes and eggplant with power tools? Indeed.
Should I do it? Depends… Not if manual gardening is your hobby and you have fun in doing the action yourself… Yes if your livelihood depends on feeding your family with your garden produce.
The thing about this example is that using power tools just makes your effort more efficient. You’re still learning and experiencing the effort of gardening.
When you use AI for tasks, you’re removing that effort. You are practicing writing prompts, NOT doing the task. You aren’t getting better at coding and managing your workflow or planning out how you could have done it better for next time, so you won’t ever improve.
If AI does all the entry level coding, then there won’t be any humans to LEARN coding. Then when senior coders retire, there is only AI to take their place.
And that goes for EVERYTHING. We are exactly 1 generation of talent away from having no humans who can code, or who can do art, or who can write stories, or who can make movies. The human experience is a process, and you have to actually do the damn work to get there.