Am I Wasting Time Learning to Code as AI Models Improve?
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MellowPine47
I'm a computer science undergraduate still building my foundations, and every major AI announcement makes me worry that the skills I'm learning will soon become irrelevant. I'm studying programming fundamentals and C to understand how computers work at a lower level, while also learning web technologies and building projects by writing the code myself. I use AI tools occasionally to explain concepts, but I try not to depend on them for generating my solutions.
Recent claims about increasingly capable models have made me question whether this effort is worthwhile. I'm passionate about software development and want practical skills for the job market, but I'm worried that AI will eventually handle most programming tasks. For people already working in the industry or further along in their studies, what should someone in my position focus on? Is learning fundamentals and practicing without AI still valuable, and how should AI tools fit into the learning process?
Answers
Your current approach sounds sensible. Keep writing programs, compiling them, reading the errors, and debugging the problems yourself. That feedback loop is how you learn to reason about software and how systems behave. You can use AI like a reference book: after you’ve tried to solve a problem, ask it to explain a specific concept or error, then return to the code and verify everything yourself.
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Think of AI as an instrument, not a replacement for understanding the subject. You probably don’t want to be the only musician in an orchestra who can play notes but doesn’t know any music theory. Learning the fundamentals means you can recognize mistakes, adapt when the tool fails, and keep working when the technology changes.
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You’re not wasting your time. The announcements are often marketing, and the useful way to judge a model is by looking at independent results and real-world reliability rather than accepting company executives’ claims. New tools may be impressive, but that doesn’t automatically mean they replace the need to understand what the generated code is doing.
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Even if AI writes more code, engineers still need to review it. Generated code can be subtly incorrect, insecure, hard to maintain, or incompatible with the rest of a system. Someone has to understand the requirements, test the result, investigate production failures, and decide whether the solution is appropriate. Strong fundamentals and judgment make you much better at doing that.
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There’s also no guarantee that models will produce perfectly consistent or correct code. Even very capable systems can make mistakes, misunderstand requirements, or hide important assumptions. If you eventually use them heavily at work, your value will include knowing what to ask for, checking the result, and spotting problems before they reach users. The more you understand programming, systems, and software design, the more effectively you can use these tools.
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MellowPine47: That makes sense. I’m mainly worried that I won’t be able to rely on AI for explanations forever, so I should probably strengthen the fundamentals first and treat the models as optional assistance rather than the source of my understanding.