AI tools help code, but not everyone finds them useful

With recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), the day may soon come when you won’t have to struggle to learn how to write programming code.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently said that AI will allow anyone to talk to a computer and program it. Experts agree he is in the AI ​​revolution in programming, but some say human programming skills will change, not disappear.

Gerry Szatvanyi, CEO of OSF Digital, said: “AI in general will help people who are interested in this field progress faster and avoid some mistakes. But if you don’t have an aptitude for the technology, , AI is useless.” In an email interview with Lifewire, “It’s really about enhancing human potential.”

Programming with AI

Huang said generative AI will enable anyone to create software applications, old and new.

“This computer doesn’t care how you program it. It has an incredibly large language model capability, so it tries to make sense of you,” he said at Computex 2023. Mr Huang said in his presentation. “So the barrier to programming is incredibly low. “We’ve closed the digital divide. Everyone’s a programmer. All we have to do is tell the computer something.”

Coding, or programming, is the art of making computers perform complex tasks effectively, said Vinod Iyengar, product director at artificial intelligence firm Third AI, in an email. He pointed out that the basic programming task is to think and design the system you want and communicate it through coding.

“Tools like generative AI greatly enhance capabilities and help many people learn and use coding, but they still directly replace programmers due to the fact that someone has to design the system. I can’t,” he added. “However, simple tasks such as generating reports, building landing pages, or simply designing his website can be done by AI.”

But Iyengar said the new wave of generative AI could help teach new learners in a personalized way, allowing users with experience in one language to quickly reskill in another programming language. said it could be done.

For those wanting a little foray into AI programming, Iyengar suggested using Github Copilot, a GPT-powered code assistance tool, to help with programming internally. Similarly, ChatGPT and Google BARD can help you analyze code snippets, translate functions into different languages, generate test cases, and create small blocks of code for small to medium tasks.

“But what people should keep in mind is that the data they share with these third parties could potentially be used for training and compromised,” he added.

AI can make developers’ lives easier by helping them automate tasks, Ismaen Aboubakare, head of developer advocacy at code development platform Airkit.ai, said in an email.

“There are tools that allow you to build apps with just prompts,” he added. “But the problem is that AI needs a set of specific directions. You have to be specific, and to be specific, you need to ‘understand what’s going on in software development. ”

Non-programmers who want to use AI should start with ChatGPT for basic support, said Aboubakare. With the ability to chat and use ChatGPT as a mentor, you’ll have enough knowledge to get started.

Will AI replace programmers?

Iyengar said AI will continue to make programming more accessible. Low-code and no-code platforms already exist. It goes even further with drag-and-drop technology and eliminates the need to write code.

“Natural language processing helps aspiring programmers interact with AI, basically anyone can write prompts in plain language, and AI generates code based on the prompts,” he added. .

Lachlan de Crespigny, co-CEO of tech company Revelo, said in an email interview that programmers have been working on tools to speed up programming for years.

“We can expect this trend to continue to accelerate, with more non-programmers working on technology while programmers focus on more complex software to solve society’s biggest challenges,” he said. added.