Is AI the future of development

As developers embrace the power of AI, is it really the future? Are human developers soon to be replaced by AI for design, code and development?

The Power of AI

AI is an incredible tool, and it’s extremely powerful. It does, however, still require human oversight. It would be foolish to allow an AI to create code and deploy it without it going through the same scrutiny a human-generated “work” would receive. AI can and does make mistakes, and it is important that you do not allow these mistakes to become part of your projects.

In the past, whenever something was being developed, it would start with a plan, then move through to the prototyping stage, it would enter beta testing, and the project would be thoroughly inspected for issues before being released to the public or your users. Today, many people fully trust AI to get it right and allow it to, in effect, be the lead developer.

Proofing all code

Whenever a piece of software is being created, you need to have control over the codebase at every step of the development process. If you allow AI to generate the code, you need to make 100% sure that you fully understand the code that is being produced. It is key that all aspects of the code make sense to you as a developer. If you can’t understand sections, you cannot guarantee that the code being produced is safe.

You need to be responsible for any code produced by AI on your behalf. At the end of the day, the buck will stop with you when bugs appear. This is why it is vital that you are using AI as a tool and not as a programmer. It can help you code, but you are still the boss.

AI as an assistant

One area where AI really shines is checking over code that has already been written. It may find problems and propose solutions. It may even find security bugs that could have serious consequences if not patched. This is a perfectly reasonable use of AI. It is being used as a tool to help you get your job done.

In a recent example, I was creating some server-side code, and I had a recurring issue. I spent some time debugging it and then pasted the code into an AI. Right away, it found the issue…

A simple lowercase letter that should have been uppercase had prevented an entire script from functioning.

This is a perfect example of when AI can be a truly useful tool to have at your disposal.

You’re the boss

Whenever you are developing something, you need to be the “person” who makes all the key decisions. You need to fully understand every aspect of the code that is being created. If you allow an AI to create scripts and you later experience bugs, it will be a lot harder to correct them because it was written by an AI.

At a very minimum, you need to have AI extensively comment all code to reinforce what each section is doing. This may help you to better understand it. Reading code written by AI is like reading code written by another developer. We each have our own coding style, and when we experience code that is written in a different way, it can be hard to get our head around.

If you are a coder, do not stop coding. Use your knowledge and experience to steer the AI.