Correct vs. Incorrect Use of AI in General and in Software Development
As you may already know, I'm a content creator, and I like to share resources focused primarily on programming. With the rise of artificial intelligence, some people may have a misconception about how one works or even wonder if it still makes sense to create this type of content.
That's precisely what I want to address in this article.
Does AI solve everything?
I want to make one thing clear: if AI solved everything, including programming, then platforms like YouTube would have disappeared by now. Because if everything is solved by asking AI, why look for tutorials or documentation? And the same applies to Google. However, both platforms are still relevant and growing.
The reality is that AI should be seen as just another tool, not the ultimate solution. Platforms like YouTube or Google may fall short in some aspects; that's where AI can help you. But for broader or more generic topics, it's often not the best option. Or at least not as the first or only option.
Example of misuse of AI
In a Romu podcast, one of the experts addressed a similar question: "Will AI put digital marketing departments out of business?" His answer was spot on, and I'll take it for granted for this topic: if someone without marketing (or, in our case, programming) knowledge tries to use AI to generate results, they'll likely end up with a disaster.
AI is not there to replace knowledge, but to enhance it.
Good practices when using AI
Here are some best practices I follow and recommend:
- Use AI as a second opinion. I use it as if it were a second person I'm consulting with. If it suggests a solution, I analyze it, adapt it, and adjust it to my needs.
- Ask specific questions. Instead of asking for "a responsive app that's SEO-friendly," it's better to ask: "How can I improve the structure of this responsive component in Vue to make it more accessible?"
- Understand what you're asking. If you don't know what you're asking, you won't be able to assess whether the answer is good, bad, or dangerous.
- Never let AI decide for you. You should guide it, not the other way around.
About the feedback received
The comment I'm referring to said something like, "What if I gave the entire book to the AI, would it come up with the solution you suggested?"
I think what he meant was that if he gives the AI the entire book I'm creating, will it produce the complete solution I propose? Understand: he thinks the AI is doing this entire book and course I'm developing for me. Which is far from the truth.
I'm building this resource based on my personal experience. I've been developing software for over 10 years, and now I'm putting together a course on how to build an online store with Laravel and Livewire, applying best practices from the start.
For example, in the PayPal integration, I'm dividing the functionality into modules:
- A trait that makes the direct connection.
- A generic class for managing multiple payment gateways.
- A product-specific class, in this case, books.
This entire modular structure can only be created if you truly understand what you're doing. You can rely on AI for small questions, like, "How best to modularize this part?" But if you simply say, "Make me an online store with Laravel," it will most likely return outdated, unscalable, and poorly structured code.
Conclusion
So, back to the initial question: is it worth continuing to develop these resources? Absolutely. Not only is it worthwhile, but it's more important than ever to teach how to properly use these new tools, like AI, within a professional workflow focused on best practices.
This isn't about AI doing everything. It's about how you, with your knowledge, direct it to achieve useful and valuable results.
How to Use AI Correctly vs. Incorrectly: Opinion and Example
I'm recording this video because I wanted, so to speak, to reinforce the idea I mentioned earlier: someone made a criticism, insinuating that I generate all my content with AI. Many people do that: they generate all their content with artificial intelligence.
I want, so to speak, to give an example of that and share a little more of my opinion, because I know it may seem a bit abstract to some. So here's a little more context.
How I Use AI
Here's a prompt I'm using. Look, it's very simple. I'm not saying I'm an AI expert or anything like that.
It also depends on what you want to do. Sometimes you don't have to get so complicated; at least, that's my opinion.
But anyway, as I said, this is just an example. It's not how I fully use AI, period.
Let's say I want to write something, for example, about how to use AI ethically, and I want to give my opinion. One way is to directly ask the AI to generate that content, for example, for a post.
There, I could say:
"Make me a post of so many lines or words on the correct use of AI." I could even specify that it cover certain points, including features or examples.
The more specific you are, the more detailed the answer will be. But even then, the problem I see is that, even if you give it a good prompt, it will return content very similar to what it would generate to someone else asking a similar question. Even if you vary the prompt, the result will be quite generic.
The use I consider correct
For me, the correct use of AI is as an assistant, not as a complete content generator.
Not that it generates content from scratch for no clear reason, even if you give it a prompt. But that it helps you format, correct, and improve. That's precisely how I use it.
I give it what I call "the source" and from there I ask it to improve it.
So, as I was saying, it's very different to ask the AI to create all the content for you, no matter how nice the prompt is, than to use it the way I do:
for example, I have this code, this text, and I ask it to improve it based on a certain condition. That's what I do.
In my case, for reasons that I think are quite understandable, I usually translate these videos into post format.
That's why, when I do the weekly updates, I always tell you that it has an equivalent on the blog.
I don't know if I'll translate this particular video into a post, because there are some that aren't really worth it. But when it's about coding, for example, I do ask the AI to translate everything I say in the spoken video into written text.
I copy and paste that text here into ChatGPT and tell it exactly: "Improve the writing of the text block. Add headings, commas, periods, accents, and everything else."
When the text is transcribed from spoken text, it usually doesn't have good punctuation. It ends up a mess.
Then I ask it not to change the writing too much, just to adapt it a little if it detects errors or things I've said incorrectly. That's the flexibility I give it.
I could also tell it not to change anything. It depends on how you want to use it.
In my case, I like it this way. That's my prompt, and with that, it generates it perfectly.
I used to do this work by hand, but since I'm always short on time, ChatGPT clearly does it in seconds. I just pass it the text block and that's it.
You can see the final result; this post was improved based on what was discussed in it.
It separates the periods, recognizes the text correctly, and arranges it. For me, this is a good use of AI: as an assistant for formatting, finding errors, and so on.
A bad use of AI
A bad use of AI, as that person said in their review, would be to tell it: "Generate all the content for me."
That's very different from what I do. Even if the prompt is well done, if you ask it to create everything from scratch, what you're doing is repeating that in both the video and the post, and copying the generated text exactly.
In my case, even if I use my spoken words, what the AI does is format it and improve it a little. But the content is completely mine.
Conclusion
So, the result that the AI gives me, so to speak, can provide me with feedback.
But I don't think what it says is pure gold for someone to plagiarize as is. All that content is directly mine.
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I'm taking advantage of an unhealthy comment to give my opinion on why AI should be used, how to use it correctly, and how to use it incorrectly.
- Andrés Cruz