This article describes the dos and don’ts when using AI in software development. This allows you to stay ahead of the curve with the latest technology and confidently use AI as a useful tool in your toolbox, rather than a threat. work.
AI will revolutionize software development
AI tools like ChatGPT are making ripples throughout the development community. While some people embrace this change, others find AI a threat. How do we deal with this new technology? Do we have to abandon all our old routines? The second fear hit us even deeper. It’s the fear of becoming useless and losing your job.
If we act on and believe those fears, we will misuse new technology, which will make those fears a reality. For example, if we rely completely on new technology and abandon all old traditional techniques, we risk losing knowledge and eventually being completely replaced by technology.
Remember, this is not the first time humanity has faced such challenges. When machines began to take over factories during the Industrial Revolution, two fears arose. It is the fear of having to adapt to the use of new and unknown tools and the fear of being completely replaced by these new tools.
Don’t use AI tools in place of your learning platform
If you want to learn new skills or expand your knowledge in a flexible and accessible online format, you should head to an online learning platform or bootcamp. These platforms offer a wide range of online courses, tutorials, and educational content created by experts in the field. These experts use their experience to provide a thorough and reliable way to learn new subjects.
You shouldn’t trust AI tools like this. AI tools can give illusory responses when they don’t know the answer, which can be very convincing. If you don’t know the subject matter, you won’t know when the AI is making something up.
Before you ask an AI tool for help, you need to understand the basics of the technology you want to use. This allows you to evaluate the results of your AI tool and identify any issues with the answers you receive from it.
However, even in the early stages of learning a new programming language or technology, AI tools can help in one area: providing a learning path. The following shows how to create a custom learning path using ChatGPT.
In the previous screenshot, ChatGPT provided us with a complete study schedule up to week 25. This list of books, courses, and other e-learning resources will guide you as you begin your Angular adventure.
But after a few weeks of learning and having access to AI technology, should you just rely on it? We’ll discuss this in the next section.
Use the latest AI tools in your learning support system
AI technology makes repetitive tasks easier. It also helps resolve bugs that you spent days trying to fix. In fact, they are so useful that you can fall into the trap of relying solely on these tools.
However, while AI is a useful part of a learning support system, it should not be the only element.
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You may be wondering why you should use other tools when one tool can give you the answers to all your challenges most of the time. To answer this question, consider Maya Angelou’s words: “There is beauty and strength in diversity.”
Whether you watch videos, read articles, take courses, or participate in hands-on activities, each learning method offers a unique perspective. AI tools need to become part of the learning support system. A learning support system is a collection of resources that you refer to when you want to learn something new or review information you have already gathered about a subject.
For example, it’s important to review each technology’s documentation and learn best practices from its developers.
Also, remember that traditional methods like searching Stack Overflow can provide more than just an answer to your question. We provide diverse insights through discussions on each topic.
Treat AI like a useful tool
It’s important to treat AI-powered development tools as they should: tools that help developers tackle long, repetitive tasks. These are not fully functional code writing machines. Rather, it is designed to increase efficiency and productivity by automating certain aspects of coding.
AI is great at generating code snippets and automating repetitive tasks, but it can’t take over the role of a developer. It’s important to maintain an active role in the coding, understand the logic behind the code, and ensure that the final output is consistent with project requirements and best practices.
Additionally, it’s important to decide when to leverage AI tools in your coding workflow. AI can be a valuable resource for generating ideas, suggesting improvements, and automating repetitive tasks, but it shouldn’t be the cornerstone of every coding task.
Over-reliance on AI tools can hinder your own growth as a developer and problem-solving ability. Striking a balance between leveraging AI to increase efficiency and leveraging your unique problem-solving skills to write robust, logical code is the key to maintaining the integrity and quality of your work. This is the key.
In essence, AI can be a powerful ally in the development process, but it must complement rather than completely replace skills.
Evaluate all AI output
Evaluating the output you receive from your AI tools is an important aspect of responsible AI implementation. Continuously monitoring and evaluating AI results is essential to keeping AI accurate and relevant over time.
AI systems are not perfect. Errors and biased results may occur. Therefore, you need to review the code generated by AI so that you can quickly identify and fix issues.
Despite their strength and ability to process vast amounts of data, AI systems are not immune to training data biases and algorithmic limitations. The best answer to your question may come by asking additional questions about your AI tool or rephrasing your initial question. It’s important to use critical thinking and maintain a healthy level of skepticism when interpreting results generated by AI.
Additionally, it’s important to recognize that AI tools like ChatGPT 3.5 have a knowledge expiration date. This means that the information is only current up to a certain point. Relying solely on their work may not reflect the latest developments and insights in a rapidly evolving world.
When working with data generated by AI, it is essential to use real-time data and expert human judgment, especially when making important decisions or seeking up-to-date information.
This is an example of a question I sent to ChatGPT 3.5 about how to build content-unavailable views in SwiftUI for iOS devices.
In the previous example, ChatGPT was not aware that starting in 2023, SwiftUI includes a new view called . ContentUnavailableView Designed specifically for this type of content. When I persisted and asked if he knew of any more recent views on how to achieve this in 2023, he replied that the latest knowledge update was in September 2021.
Therefore, be sure to consider timeliness so that you get the correct answer to your question. If you’re trying to update your code to current standards or learn about the latest technology announcements, AI tools may not be helpful (although they may appear hallucinatory and make it sound like they can).
