In recent years, artificial intelligence-powered software has begun to replace humans in many fields. We are seeing many products that are replacing humans who do repetitive tasks like document verification, data filling, automation, packaging, etc.
In the past few months, 2 AI products launched:
- GitHub Copilot: It will help developers to write a code by writing a comment
- OpenAI Codex: This tool will convert plain English to software, Read this article to know more
Some developers have questions like Will AI replace programmers? Will AI build software? and many more
Here I am explaining a few reasons for Why AI can't replace programmers:
1. Innovation
AI products learn from past data by processing billions and millions of lines that are written by people like us. By learning from past data they write a code, If they processed the wrong code AI tools will write the wrong code.
I have seen OpenAI GPT 3 backed products(Click here to know more about GPT 3 tools and features), that sometimes give unrelated content that can't be used for our work.
Innovation works best when it comes out of interactions and conflict with the world. To innovate we need to dig deeper in ourselves, and from our intuition, we get new ideas. AI algorithm does not have these skills they just learn from past experience. AI algorithm does not have Intuition and Mind.
So It is hard for AI to innovate new things because they can just do repetitive tasks by learning from the past.
2. Creativity
Creativity is the ability to imagine possibilities, think, and solve problems in novel ways using imagination and intuition. creativity is the foundation of almost all excellence leaving behind new ideas that are beautiful in their uniqueness
To build great software products we need creativity to make difference in the world and it comes from Imagination, As we see how AI learns and works so AI does not have Imagination or Intuition.
3. Requirements
Many software fails due to lack of clear requirements, If there is any miscommunication between the business team and software developers then it cost them a lot. To build great software we need clear requirements and that is impossible.
While developing software we learn from mistakes, When we start to build any feature we get many problems and scenarios it is discussed with the business team and client. By making mistakes, thinking about our new scenarios, and after discussing it with the team we complete the software after the deadline. :-)
So we do not have the clear requirement to build a new feature or product. we get many new ideas after when development started and when a customer uses our product.
That's why it will be difficult to develop a new feature using AI.
4. Teamwork
While building software, the developer needs to communicate with the business team, other developers, end-user, or clients to clear doubts or discuss new ideas. And AI tools can't think about problems like this nor communicate with the people or stakeholders.
5. New Technology
To build a scalable app, fast app and to reduce development cost new technologies and tools get invented. And AI algorithm learns from past code. So to add new technology and tool features in the AI tool it will need millions of lines of code to build the software using that new technology and the technology itself will be old until then. :-(.
So AI cant work on new technologies and tools, as we see every month or 6 months new updates and tools get launched.
6. Maintenance
Even if AI tools started to build software what If there are bugs, what if we need to change the feature and new logic. How it will debug the code, How it will change existing logic. And even if we hired a new developer the developer will need months to understand the code. So it will be very difficult to maintain the code written by AI tools.
Conclusion
It is impossible to replace programmers with AI tools, but we can use those tools to increase our productivity and development time to build software fast and it will reduce development costs. And developers can spend their time writing complex logic instead of simple logic. In the future, AI will help programmers to get a lot more done but it will not replace programmers.