👨💻 AI Empowers Skilled Programmers, Offering Limited Help to Beginners
Despite regular assurances from chatbot developers about strong productivity gains due to programmers' use of artificial intelligence, the bottom line is that software quality is not noticeably improving, notes Google lead engineer Addy Osmani.
According to Osmani, senior and junior developers use AI in different ways. Experienced ones do not just accept what the AI suggests. They constantly refactor code into smaller modules, add edge cases, take a critical approach to architecture, and so on.
Actually, they do the same things during code review with junior colleagues. AI is just a tool for senior developers, and their work is based on years of hard-won engineering wisdom. Their expertise is what keeps the code maintainable.
🃏 Junior engineers often miss these crucial steps, which leads to "house of cards code"— it looks complete but collapses under real-world pressure.
It is a "knowledge paradox." Experienced developers use AI to accelerate what they already know how to do. Juniors try to use AI to learn what to do. The results differ dramatically.
An inexperienced user often faces "the 70% problem." With AI assistants, he quickly reaches 70% of the project readiness, but the remaining 30% turns out to be extremely difficult. A beginner looks at the code and does not understand what to do with it. He has no skills or knowledge of patterns. He can't turn an AI-generated template into a functional program.
To own models like a pro, you need to be able to think clearly, know patterns and architecture, read "The Pragmatic Programmer," and learn math. Writing "make this good" won't do the trick. Nevertheless, AI can help you study—if you take a thoughtful and informed approach.
🌟 The moral of this story is very simple. AI models will give you a speed boost in routine work. Still, they won't do the most important part of the project where your professionalism is required. At least not yet.
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