Age of AI

Feeling like a fraud in the age of AI

Sometimes when I feel like coding, I open my code editor, stare at a blank page, and I start feeling like I don't belong there. I've been studying Software Developing for almost three years now, and I still struggle with starting a project from blank. If I use AI to give me a starting hand, I suddenly can work and expand with it, but then a question comes: Did I make it, or did AI?

That's a question I have been having in my head lately: Am I a fraud for using AI to help me?

Tool, not a threat

Recently I came across a video from a Russian self-taught coder Youtuber, and he said something that I found interesting:

"AIs are just tools. Artists once painted on rocks, then on canvas, and now they use tablets. You don’t lose your creativity because you change your tools."

That really made me think. I've been thinking of coding as something you must do fully yourself, from a blank screen, line by line. But that's not entirely true. Creativity is what matters. It is the thought, the intent and the way you shape your idea to life.

AI doesn't erase that. It just changes the process to help you. The tools changed, but my ideas are still mine.

Using AI as a tool

I'm not telling people to go generate their own ideas to life without effort. I mean that AI could be used as a starting hand or a tool to help you achieve your ideas. When I use AI in my code, I use it as a starting hand, that I can then refine, expand and turn into something my own. I'm not asking it to do the work for me, but just to guide me with the start of my projects. If I understand the logic behind, I use the given code and expand on it, then the idea eventually becomes mine.

Modern creativity is learning to use new tools without losing the human touch and soul of the project.

Bigger picture

We live in a time where AI is becoming something internet used to be: Revolution that changed how things worked.

It is easy to be afraid of it. AI is expanding so fast. Just in the last two years we have gone from text to images, and now videos. But the truth is that we give a meaning to the things AI creates.
AI can write code, but it can't decide what it makes. It can give me a single script, but can it give me a full working game? No. Can AI solve problems in a code? Yes, but can it feel the satisfaction of turning your idea to life? No, and that's the thing. AI doesn't replace us, it is a tool to expand our creativity.

Closing thoughts

I'm starting to see AI not as a threat to creativity, but as proof that creativity evolves.
We've always used tools, from sticks and stones, to brushes and paper, to tablets and AI. The difference isn't the tool, but the creator.

So maybe I'm not fraud after all :)

P.S I'm not saying that you should go and generate AI art as you please, but to learn how to use it as tools to achieve your art. Make concept art with AI, expand on ideas, ask help, but don't try for it to replace you.

P.S 2 This text might sound really basic to some, but I've encountered many people that view AI as something that will replace us, or people who view it as something bad. I don't think that's the case. Then there's also a question of "AI will replace our jobs". Not exactly. Yes in a long run it will destroy some jobs, but also make new ones.
This text is not something we don't know already, so it will not change your perspective on life. I just liked the theme and it was a fun time writing this :3