The AI Elephant.
What’s that I hear you cry? “What about AI!? When are you going to mention AI!? Aren’t you scared that the robots are going to take your job!?”
Well the answer to those questions are: What about it? Now. And let them try!
As artificial intelligence crashes through the technological landscape, us web developers find ourselves at an interesting crossroads. Do we get out of the way? Or do we meet the Ailephant head on? Or perhaps there’s a more subtle third way? Here’s a quick list of things that AI can help with in today’s brave new world with some of the drawbacks included.
1. Enhanced Productivity
AI-powered tools undoubtedly have the potential to greatly speed up the coding process. There are a myriad of AI Copilot tools that can suggest code snippets making things that used to take hours take minutes, but does it always get it right? In my experince no! So you’ll still need some coding knowledge to make sure what it spits out isn’t total codswallop.
2. Design Ideas
Sometimes when confronted with a design task it can be difficult to visualise the concept, now you don’t have to! With a glut of free (or paid) AI image generators you can ask the machines to make a mock up for you. This can actually be a hindrance if you tumble too far into the AI rabbit-hole, as you can get lost trying to dial in your vision without realising you already have a picture of what you need in your head! So again use for inspiration only!
3. Improved troubleshooting
OH GOOD GOD NO! Code not working? Why!? Well gone are the days (nearly), of scouring the interwebs trying to look for a fellow lost soul that has encountered the same problem as you as now you can ask the robots. However they seem a rather malleable bunch and may solve your problem by delivering a platter of brand new ones for you to work through with them. Maybe they’re lonely?
Looking Ahead
So in conclusion; AI is undoubtedly rapidly changing the coding landscape with new fancy tools being created almost daily, although in my experience so far you still need a base knowlege of the code that it produces to ensure it fits in your project(s). I believe the key to thriving alongside the Ailephant rather than being crushed to death by it is to embrace AI as a collaborator and a tool (not in an offensive way), to speed up your workflow and inspire you to new dizzying heights! This symbiosis should enhance rather than replace human expertise (hopefully).
That's quite enough from me today, I'm off to dance with Jumbo. Hurrah!