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I'm a programmer. My boss always tells me to use AI so that I can write code faster.

Here's how coding with AI works: I tell the AI what to code, and it gives me something that's about 50% of what I described. Then, I tell the AI what's missing. The AI apologizes and provides the remaining 50%. However, the code doesn't run. I tell the AI what the compiler says, and the AI apologizes and gives me a fixed version. I can run it, but it doesn't do what it should. I tell the AI about it. The AI apologizes and gives me an improved version. Now, it's almost doing what it's supposed to do, but it still produces faulty output. I tell the AI, it apologizes, and it fixes the code. The code works as long as the input data is normal, but it fails if the data isn't normal or if it's a rare edge case. I tell the AI that the code isn't robust and doesn't handle edge cases. The AI agrees with me and rewrites the code, but now the code isn't working anymore. I tell the AI that it broke the code. The AI apologizes and fixes the code again. Finally, I have a working piece of code that does what it's supposed to do. However, it looks horrible. It looks as if an amateur wrote it. It's nearly impossible to read. It has poor performance, since it's not optimized at all. If you ever have to add a feature to it or find a bug, God help you. Time spent on this: between an hour or two because all the forth and back and all the test runs in between. Here's how coding without AI works: I write beautiful, fast, easy-to-read code that does what it's supposed to do. It's almost bug-free on the first attempt and considers all edge cases. It just takes a few test runs or a short debug session to find whatever is wrong with it on the first attempt. Time spent on this: About 20 to 40 minutes, depending if tests just run fine or whether I have to do a debug session as well. Why? Because I'm a trained professional who knows his job, and has been writing code for over 25 years. Okay, I hear you say. But even if it took four times longer, a trained professional like you is expensive, and an untrained person could have spent the time with the AI, right? Wrong! An untrained person wouldn't quickly notice that the code produces incorrect output, can't handle invalid data, or ignores important edge cases. I can see those issues at once because I have years of experience and I made those mistakes myself as a beginner. Someone with no programming experience will take that faulty, unstable code, release it, and call it a day. Customers will run away when the app crashes at startup or corrupts data permanently. They'll also have an app whose performance is bad and uses far more memory than required because the code is just poor and only functions minimally. It's like saying, "I don't need an expert. I can repair that gas leak myself," and then having your house explode three days later.