ai-discussion.md

• How has using tools like GitHub Copilot or ChatGPT impacted your coding process? Have they changed the way you approach problem-solving?
• Have you ever faced a challenge in your projects where AI tools made a significant difference? What was the challenge, and how did AI help?
• What are your thoughts on the balance between AI assistance and personal coding skills? Do you feel more productive, or are there skills you’re concerned about losing?
• How do you see AI influencing your career as a full stack developer? Are there specific skills you think you’ll need to focus on more as AI evolves?
• Can you share an experience where an AI tool saved you time or helped you overcome a difficult coding issue? How did it change your development process?

@nonhlanhla
@Hophney
@katmafalela

1. The tools has helped me understand the concepts better and solve problems at a breakneck speed and efficiency as opposed to the old way of having to wait for an answer from someone in platforms like Stack Overflow.

2. Every project I work on has obstacles, the majority of which are error messages. Fortunately, since the era of artificial intelligence, debugging errors has gotten easier, and as a result, I've risen to the position of top debugger at the hub

3. I think AI will be a great tool to have as a developer because AI will take care of the tasks that need automation, and can speed up certain tasks, help with code suggestions, and even spot bugs that might slip past human eye and I as a developer will sharpen my coding skills to create more applications that are more advanced using AI at a more faster rate.

4. Honestly, I'm not concerned about losing any skill and I am more lenient on learning to use the tools better, become a better prompt engineer than I already am. The tools are making my life easier, breaking a large project into something manageable and offers support all the way from the beginning to the end of the project.

5. When I was working on the e-commerce project, I had to write code in TypeScript. Since there wasn't enough time to learn TypeScript thoroughly before completing the project, I used Gemini Code Assist to write most of the code. This allowed me to learn the fundamentals of TypeScript on the go, rather than having to master them before starting the project

• To be honest, ever since I have been introduced to these tools, I've been lazy to even try and solve the basic and simple problems, but it does not mean I cant solve them - I just use these tools save time. I feel like I also learn things quicker with these tools as they are instant, and give me answers to specific challenges I'm facing.

• Yes, to be honest, in all the projects we have worked, AI tools have been significant, because I'm not gonna sit here and say I know everything, but these AI tools make it easy for me tackle some of the challenges I have faced. I just need to know what I want, and be able to properly prompt it, because I also have these crazy ideas running through my mind, so I always have to find ways of making it easy for AI to understand my ideas.

• As much as I use ChatGpt to solve some of my problems, I use it to learn about these coding and tech skills, and not just depend on it to solve my challenges, because, AI is not always correct, so if you are not using it to learn or to upskill yourself, you will use even the wrong responses it gives you. I am more productive with it, not to say I wouldn't be able develop some the projects I've been building without AI, but it just saves me more time, and comes up with better ways to find solutions

• I don't think I would have been able to grasp some of the fundamentals of full stack better.... to be continued

Answers.

@phamela, @sakhile, @Koketso

1. AI tools have helped us to more efficient when it comes to problem solving. They have positively impacted our work ethic to be more productive.
2. AI tools are vital in a complex data analysis project, helping with code optimization, debugging, and pattern recognition. Tools like GitHub Copilot sped up development, while AI models improved data accuracy, enabling faster problem-solving and enhanced application performance.
3. The balance is subjective depending on the developer. Some developers use AI assistance to speed up their productivity and they actually know what they are copying when they use a code provided by Chatgpt for example. On the other side another developer might solely depend on AI tools to build a website for example without exactly understanding and studying the code provided by Chatgpt and blindly using it. I feel more productive when I am using AI tools because I use them to ask AI tool to actually explain and breakdown complex code and concepts to me. However, I am concerned about other developers losing their skills especially when they do not understand the basics and fundamentals of coding and just blindly taking code that AI gives.
   4.With its automation tools AI can be used for more routine tasks leaving developers to focus on the in depth technical issues and problem solving abilities which remain indispensable.
4. Yes, GitHub Copilot helped me optimize a complex sorting algorithm I was struggling with, saving time and improving performance. It’s now a go-to tool for tackling tough coding issues, speeding up development, and enhancing code quality.