Why is it that great artists still want to make their art by hand? Why do musicians still want to compose their tunes? Why do writers still prefer to write their own stories? When AI can do it all within seconds. It's not just these artists that do not use AI; we, the consumers of these art forms, prefer handcrafted art over AI generated content.
Software development is not like these art forms. Software development is highly commercial endeavour and is often done to solve profound problems faced by humanity. This is true if you are looking at it only from organisation standpoint. From individual perspective, software development is not less than any other art form. Then why is it that we the Software developers do not have the same freedom as the artists? Why are we being forced to use AI when it's use atrophies our core skills.
It's clear by now that veteran Software developers are good at using AI to build powerful Software. But they are in this position because they have been writing Software by hand for major part of their life. How are juniors going to develop the same skills if they start using AI from day one. We used to invest in people and their skills. Why are we not doing the same today?
All our advancements in Software, our languages, frameworks, our Software development models, security models were developed over decades to manage complexity of Software with human teams. Why are we so hell bent on throwing all those advancements for AI that has only been here for 5 years. Its teams that can manage complexity of massive Software projects not AI that has to keep re-reading the same code over and over again to do any sort of meaningful work.
Over my 12 years of software development career, I have learnt that organizations strive to mitigate risks and build risilient systems. So how are we not seeing these proprietary AI systems — owned by a few giants who are, in turn, dependent on a single company that can create the hardware for these AI systems to work — as a risk? Where are the security pundits who used to ban mobile phones at offshore development centers as a security risk, when the company is now handing over its entire IP to these AI systems?
It's said that when we are learning or practicing something we are building new neural pathways in our brain which is critical for individual growth and keeping certain brain disorders at bay. I was not fan of constant learning by our profession but I genuinely miss it especially when the alternative is to prompt through the problems day in and day out. The AI was supposed to replace menial work not deep creative pursuits. But somewhere we have lost our way and have succumbed to a AI frenzy where anyone who is not using AI is seen as an outcast.
Give people the freedom to develop the software the way they see fit.