Why did you learn to programming? There are many answers to the preceding question but a good number of us wanted to make games or were not artistically inclined and saw computer languages as a way to create applications, games, and solutions (in my case with the help of an artist!). AI provides almost the same freedom to those that are not artistically or technically inclined. Regular users can now create different things based on their natural language. This is not a note on regular users but to software engineers or future software engineers.

I learned to program to make games but not just create games; really understand the moving parts. The benefits of starting with an engine are not lost on me but before working with any engine in the market I wanted to understand as much as possible by creating games from scratch. This meant getting comfortable with the WIN32 API, working with earlier versions of DirectX, and playing nice with the windows messaging loop.     

This is a long way to say that I am not worried about AI taking my job. Like everyone I need to feed my family, but computer programming has never been just a job for me. It remains a means to create, express myself, and push the limits of what I thought possible. Before my professional career as a software engineer, I worked as a houseman, in construction, retail, golf club maintenance, and running security system installation to name just a few. That was mindless labor and most often boring to the bone but I bring it up to highlight the fact that work doesn’t scare me as much as not being able to create after a mindless session of restocking isle 7.

Even if AI could produce the best software in the planet without the intervention of an engineer to steer it along – I would still seat daily improving my craft and creating a piece a software. Just because AI can do things for you doesn’t mean it always should or that an ability should be lost to it.

We shouldn’t lose our ability to propagate and share knowledge. If you really think about it – AI is only possible because of it.