Is AI the end of software engineering or the next step in its evolution?
The first time I used ChatGPT to code, back in early 2023, I was reminded of "The Monkey's Paw," a classic horror story about an accursed talisman that grants wishes, but always by the most malevolent path - the desired outcome arrives after exacting a brutal cost elsewhere first. With the same humorless literalness, ChatGPT would implement the change I'd asked for, while also scrambling dozens of unrelated lines. The output was typically over-engineered, often barnacled with irrelevant fragments of code. There were some usable lines in the mix, but untangling the mess felt like a detour.
When I started using AI-assisted tools earlier this ...