Same. Messy code makes it harder for us to understand and thus maintain the code (which is why people often refer to code as a liability), but is that the case for AI tools as well? If not, it seems like clean code may not matter as much anymore.
I've been using AI tools to brainstorm approaches and sometimes generate code, but actually doing the typing myself. That way I'm less likely to forget the mechanics and programming language over time.
The way I see it is - AI still makes mistakes, and I have to know how things work at some point anyway. So I'd rather spend my time actually understanding fundamentals (in my case, CSS at the moment), than trying to keep up with the frequently changing AI tools and models.
Once the tools and models stabilize more (as well as the pricing model), there's less risk in me learning something that is no longer relevant.
Except when I choose to wait on learning how to use AI tools effectively, I get told I am going to be "left behind".
You make it seem like AI coding has already "totally changed" our jobs. This is exactly the FOMO the article talks about ("until its too late"). It hasn't. I'm still using the same workflows without AI tools, and so are most of my teammates.
I agree. This is one area I'm hoping that AI tools can help with. Given a complex codebase that no one understands, the ability to have an agent review the code change is at least better than nothing at all.
I would normally agree, but I think the "code is a liability" quote assumes that humans are reading and modifying the code. If AI tools are also reading and modifying their own code, is that still true?
There was nothing stopping everyone from using continuous delivery today, yet many companies still rely on long cycles, manual testing and handovers. The problem isn't the tooling, it's the people.
I don't understand this part either. At some point we're writing software for people to use, and there has to be someone who comes up with the requirements based on what people want. AI doesn't change this fact.
Is there an equivalent for the JS ecosystem? If not, having Dependabot update dependencies automatically after a cooldown still seems like a better alernative, since you are likely to never update dependencies at all if it's not automatic.
I use Gemini for personal stuff such as travel planning and research on how to fix something, which product to buy, etc. My company has as Pro subscription so I use that instead of ChatGPT.
If tech companies want to show they have a high percentage of LoC being generated by AI, it's likely they are going to encourage developers to use AI to further increase these numbers, at which point is does become a measure of productivity.
The book Software Engineering at Google makes a distinction between software engineering and programming. The main difference is that software engineering occurs over a longer time span than programming. In this sense, AI tools can make programming faster, but not necessarily software engineering.