AI Coding Tools Are Bad News for Lazy Programmers

How AI is Redefining the Role of Programmers in the Tech Industry

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TL;DR: AI-generated code outperforms lazy programmers. Software jobs are declining, but centaurs will survive.

\ Today, a friend of mine shared his frustration about being asked to fill out a registration form requiring a username and password.

\ The system was poorly designed and demanded a secure password without explaining what the issue was.

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\ This is a clear example of terrible UX and a lazy programmer unaware of writing error messages with empathy.

\ I told my friend this is unacceptable in today's world since modern AIs can easily solve such problems.

\ I took my phone and said, "L.M.P.T.F.Y." (Let Me Prompt That For You), the modern equivalent to LMGTFY.

\ I quickly wrote a prompt:

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Give me the code for a secure password validation site with helpful error messages when the user enters a weak password.

\ The A.I. successfully provided a working page with this code:

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document.getElementById('passwordForm') .addEventListener('submit', function(event) { event.preventDefault(); // Prevent the form from submitting const password = document.getElementById('password').value; // Get the password value const errorMessages = document.getElementById('errorMessages'); // Get the error messages container errorMessages.innerHTML = ''; // Clear previous error messages let errors = []; // Array to store error messages // Validate minimum length if (password.length < 8) { errors.push('The password must be at least 8 characters long.'); } // Validate uppercase letters if (!/[A-Z]/.test(password)) { errors.push('The password must contain one uppercase letter.'); } // Validate lowercase letters if (!/[a-z]/.test(password)) { errors.push('The password must contain one lowercase letter.'); } // Validate numbers if (!/[0-9]/.test(password)) { errors.push('The password must contain one number.'); } // Validate special characters if (!/[!@#$%^&*(),.?":{}|<>]/.test(password)) { errors.push('The password must contain one special character.'); } // Display errors or success message if (errors.length > 0) { errors.forEach(error => { const p = document.createElement('p'); // Create a new paragraph element p.textContent = error; // Set the error message as text errorMessages.appendChild(p); // Add the error message to the container }); } else { alert('Valid password!'); // Show success message if no errors } });

\ You can also try it yourself:

• ChatGPT
• Claude (Includes a working preview)
• Perplexity
• Copilot
• Gemini
• DeepSeek
• Meta AI
• Qwen

The Bad News

The AI-generated solution with helpful error messages is bad news for lazy programmers.

\ Software development jobs are already declining, and this trend is expected to continue:

https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/software-engineering-job-openings?embedable=true

This is something many people have been forecasting.

\ I wrote an article five years ago during the last AI Winter predicting this would happen.

https://maximilianocontieri.com/most-programmers-are-losing-our-jobs-very-soon?embedable=true

As the great Niels Bohr once said:

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Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

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Now, it's clear: lazy programmers are doomed!

The Good News

What can we do as software engineers besides writing mediocre code?

Give Up

Explore Other Careers

Soon, there will be a shortage of handy people such as electricians, plumbers, and painters.

https://www.youtube.com/v/uU-XfZgQIVw?embedable=true

Improve Ourselves by Becoming Centaurs.

A.I. won't take your job. A developer mastering AI tools will.

\ I write biweekly articles about clean code, refactoring, and programming.

\ In these articles, you can compare the output of many AIs with and without guidance.

\ For example, the above code has several problems unnoticed by AIs:

https://hackernoon.com/how-to-find-the-stinky-parts-of-your-code-part-xxxi?embedable=true

https://hackernoon.com/how-to-find-the-stinky-parts-of-your-code-part-i-xqz3evd?embedable=true

https://hackernoon.com/how-to-find-the-stinky-parts-of-your-code-part-viii-8mn3352?embedable=true

Humans remain invaluable when they know how to harness AI effectively.

\ Here's a video benchmarking some tools:

https://www.youtube.com/v/99GuXTIW0R4?embedable=true

Conclusion

Hopefully, my friend will soon complete the password form — or better yet developers will deprecate all passwords.

Also, I hope you'll write solutions like these and get paid as a "Centaur"- a developer who masters AI tools to enhance their craft.