A Week With A.I.
I want to frame this article in this way: I am barely learning A.I. In one way this is a good thing as I am learning how to frame requests to A.I. and in another way I am seeing the results of A.I.’s response to my requests. Those results are this and I believe I saw this written several years ago concerning programming in general so this is actually how I frame my novice procedure: Garbage in, Garbage out. In other words, a person who knows programming due to having learned it is going to have the best results and a person like me who is, figuratively, floundering in the dark is going to have questionable results.
A.I. is not sentient. It is a feint of the human brain. Yet, if you spend time formulating your requests and are persistent enough to stick with it through hours of figuring out what will work and what is garbage, though you thought it brilliant, progress can be made. So it is for my progress using A.I. for programming.
I have used two types of A.I. One is the A.I. from Codeium named, “Windsurf,” and the other is from Microsoft and also used by Git Hub called, “Co-Pilot.” I am also just now trying out one from “Replit.” These are names you may or may not have heard and this is not educated choices I have made but choices based on internet searches. Thus far, I like Co-Pilot the best as “Windsurf seems to want to slap code into the mix that does not work given the result wanted. It is me that I think is causing this because I only know from doing the work without formal training . . . ever.
If you are wanting to learn code there is no better way for the average person t learn and understand it than A.I. It is a pleasant experience as A.I. is programmed to be extremely helpful to the novice and puts away memories of what has been done including all your personal input. It is the personal input that coaches A.I. about what it should present to you and how much verbiage it will put out to bring you along. However, we’re talking about hours of learning here not minutes. So far I would guess I’ve put in a total of at least two full days just learning how to ask for help.
Is it worth it? I am going to say, yes, absolutely, it is worth it as I build websites without much sysadmin knowledge. I am now gaining the knowledge and experience to delve into the code of what I have put on the internet to repair a website rather than needing to take it down because I can’t fix the inevitable glitches of all software. I now now, with certainty, that using A.I. I can fix anything that goes wrong with any type of website I build. Eventually, this may open doors for those who would like to build a website but are scared to do so.
It is a wonderful experience when you take the plunge into the unknown and find it hepful rather than injurious. Come on in, the water’s fine but you need to swim a ways before you relax in wonder.
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