Why AI Replacement of Human Developers is Not Useful

There is much speculation going on on the topic of the date of the fate of jobs in web development, graphic design, and other such positions in technology.

People make the argument that the duties of these roles can be p performed by artificial intelligence.

I am aware of this, and I disagree. I often leverage AI to build out individual components of larger projects. It makes it possible to create much more in a short amount of time, but I’d like to see someone who knows nothing about the job produce much in the way of a complete functioning web application.

When I started experimenting with this I attempted building some small command line applications in python. If it was a short script with a single function maybe a few options, sure. It could build this.

I then noticed it was was useful to iterate back and forth with the AI. (i.e., “change <x> to <y>… add a(n) <a> using <b>”) and so forth. This was useful up to a point. Then it begins to fall apart with memory limitations. The AI begins to “forget” the function names, return values, database schemas etc.

At this point it requires someone knowledgeable to keep track of the larger picture. I’d have to go pretty far back in my time as a programmer to find a time where I could be entirely replaced by AI. Probably back to when I was still in college. Yes, it could probably do all my exams, but probably not my projects beyond a 200 level class.

Then you might point out the various SASS sites that attempt to put a wrapper around the AI to perform a specific task. From my experience with them, they all seem to fall short. It’s not really AI. It’s more like an advanced translator that can translate between spoken languages, programming languages, the language of mathematics, visual. The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” and I’m sure it would take twice as many to get anywhere near the result as a few sentences to a graphic designer.

Humans are capable of creative problem solving and switching views of an abstract concept from the macro to the micro and all levels in-between. You can’t replace developers with AI, you can only make them more productive, and any company that decides to cut back on their development teams is going to find themselves left behind while the ones that don’t produce far more advanced products.

We have seen this pattern throughout the history of software development. Each new advancement just improves the efficiency with which it is possible to make an idea into a working piece of software.