I'm in a bit of a pickle here and can't really ask anyone directly since my internship boss might think I'm job hunting elsewhere. So, I'm looking for some advice on what I should know without relying on AI before I graduate from college.
Let me give you some background. I'm a sophomore almost moving to my junior year and I've been interning at an AI/ML company for about three months. My boss encourages us to use AI for coding and finishing projects. It makes me wonder, is this advice good or bad?
I want to gauge if I'm job-ready and what skills I should have. I've built a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) using YouTube tutorials to work with the MNIST dataset. Then, I utilized AI to help me write a Python script to capture video using OpenCV, which I converted to black and white to improve CNN accuracy. This setup can show confidence levels of what numbers it recognizes in real-time. I've also tackled projects detecting violence using YOLO pose estimation, along with creating a license plate detection model that streams real-time analysis. I'm now working on a robotics model employing ISAAC sim/lab.
While I know the theory behind these projects and can discuss their intricacies, I relied on AI for about 90% of the coding. I've managed to code some small projects like rock-paper-scissors and basic to-do lists without AI support, but I feel like if I had to recreate my larger projects without AI, I wouldn't be able to do it from scratch. So my main concern is: Am I actually job-ready, or do I need to be capable of coding these things on my own without AI assistance? What fundamental skills should I focus on to make sure I'm prepared for a future job?
1 Answer
You definitely need to have a solid grasp on coding without AI. Relying on AI might help you prototype quickly, but when the AI starts giving you incomplete or incorrect solutions, you’ll need to know how to troubleshoot and build from the ground up. Think of it like learning how to ride a bike—if you’re only using training wheels, you won’t get far on your own if they come off!
Exactly! We use AI tools too, but they’re no substitute for real coding skills. Always double-check AI-generated code; it's great for rapid prototyping, but for production-level work, you have to validate everything.