Artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced tremendously in recent years, with systems like ChatGPT demonstrating impressively human-like conversational abilities. This has led some to wonder - if AI can generate content, code, and more, do we really need human coders anymore?

In this post, we'll examine the capabilities and limitations of AI, the unique skills human coders bring to the table, and why despite the rise of AI, human coding skills are still very much in demand.

What Can AI Really Do?

Recent AI systems utilise natural language processing to "understand" text prompts and generate coherent written responses. Systems like GitHub Copilot can even suggest lines of code in response to comments and intent expressed in code. This has enabled AI to produce passable content on a wide range of topics, along with code that sometimes works.

However, AI has significant limitations:

Narrow abilities - While AI can generate text or code, it lacks a deeper understanding of context and meaning. The systems cannot maintain complex logic, strategies or concepts beyond the surface level.

Brittle performance - Small input variations produce erratic outputs. Without the understanding to fill gaps, AI systems make logical leaps that result in nonsensical results.

No reasoning - AI responds to prompts without any true comprehension, reasoning or intent. It cannot explain why something is the right approach.

Limited debugging skills - When issues inevitably arise, AI can struggle with troubleshooting and debugging code. It has limited ability to critically analyse its own work.

No optimisation - AI cannot refine and optimise code architecture for efficiency, scalability and practical use. It creates "workable" but not practical code.

Domain limitations - AI is narrowly focused, excelling at text generation but lacking versatility across different applications and domains. Coders possess a diverse skillset.

This is why AI code frequently fails to compile or execute properly without human supervision. AI can produce drafts, but human expertise is essential to refine ideas into functional, optimised and purposeful code.