The other day my boss at my volunteer work, gave me a document which detail a procedure for creating a website using only artificial intelligence (AI), and asked me to see how well it would work. (The document is: "Set up a context engineering flow in VS Code") As I began to dig into the task, I found the AI almost addictive to work with. Even though I have a long history in building websites, once I had figured out the basics of the procedure it was very difficult to resist the temptation to skip the review code and just go with whatever the AI produced. To be clear I like looking into the details of whatever I am doing, but having such power to create something by simply talking about it then seeing a working website just appear has me concerned. Not about the job loss potential, but about the far-reaching effects.
You see I didn't have to think about how the website worked internally. I deliberately kept my requests in plain non-technical English. As long as I was careful about my descriptions the end result was awfully close to what I wanted., Additionally the AI filled in a few things I had missed. For example,I had forgotten to place a "back" button so that the visitor could return to the home page. The AI automatically placed a very nice looking button on all the appropriate pages.
Now, as you can imagine this would be a great benefit for creativity… But there is something serious missing. There is no comprehension of how, in this case the website code is working. Beyond the obvious issues of not being able to repair the website should it break. If we use AI on a larger scale what happens over the long term? Does our ability to comprehend important concepts begin to fade?
I am old enough to remember the pre-calculator era, where you had to work things out on paper and in your head. This inevitably resulted in a deeper understanding of what ever task was being addressed. Whenever I watch a documentary on history or encounter some old information I am always astonished by the fact that in the past people undertook tremendous mental work and as a result they understood on a deeper level than I think is common today. In other words they comprehended what they were working on. They weren't just getting a result. It was the process involved that provided them with marvellous insights.
Today this "Retreat of Comprehension" has me a little bit worried. It is human nature to always desire the easier path to the result. Indeed now that I have been using voice dictation for many years on the occasion where I have to write a paragraph by hand the activity feels foreign and I do have to work at it. At the same time though a lot is gained through this manual activity. It does feel more rewarding and I remember what I physically wrote.
AI is evolving extremely quickly. The course I took a year ago is now completely out of date. I signed up for the course initially because I was curious. Now I want to sign up for courses to keep my ability to truly comprehend a topic healthy. Because I know all too well that if I don't "Use It" I will "Lose It". The same can be said I believe but the rest of the population in this regard. If we don't take the effort to understand something on a deep level we will indeed lose that variability.
Let me know what you think about this short post and how you plan to keep your comprehension and ability to enjoy the sheer act of understanding and investigating a live and thriving.
Take care Patrick
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