“When you don’t understand, it’s sometimes easier to look like you do.”
Malcolm Forbes
I have seen an explosion lately of news articles and clickbait saying that language models like Chatgpt will eventually replace all programming-related jobs. In my first AI and our Future Article, I mentioned that programming could certainly be on the job chopping block in the future if these Ai models get stronger. That being said, I need to make it clear that if you are learning programming or are a programmer your future jobs or job are safe.
The Crutch
In part one of my post I talked about foundational knowledge. As Ai grows, humanity will use it more and more as a crutch to the point that we lose the knowledge of how things actually work. This applies to programming as well. I admit that I have used Chatgpt to write short scripts I need or to create a loop for me so I can focus on some aspect of my code that is harder. I am knowledgeable enough in Powershell and Python to understand what Chatgpt is supplying me with. But if I ask Chatgpt to write me a script in C++ in which I have no in-depth knowledge of the code Chatgpt is supplying me with, I just know it does what I asked, is a good thing? Chatgpt is very good at writing code but if you don’t understand the code itself how do you know it’s secure? How do you know if that is the right way to write it?
It’s kind of like using Google Translate. You can put in English sentences and get out Spanish sentences but how do you know it’s correct? It will probably get your point across but you don’t truly understand its output. If I am making a website or program I want to know that it’s secure and truly works. I can certainly make Chatgpt build the whole thing for me but I will have no understanding of how it works. I would much rather have a developer who understands what they are doing. I don’t care if they use Chatgpt as long as they understand what is being written.
Ai isn’t the end all be all. It’s a useful tool that will certainly help developers speed up their development time but it won’t outright replace them. If humanity doesn’t want to lose its foundational knowledge, then there will always be a need for someone who understands coding languages at their core.
Authors Note:
This article also applies to translators. I am also still working on part 2 of AI and our Future. Should be released soon!