What first came to your mind when you first heard of or discovered the popular AI model, ChatGPT and its amazing capabilities to understand complex questions and to give concise answers? How about when you first had a glimpse of AI-generated pictures making rounds on social media, that looked so real that you were almost fooled to believe they were real, eg the image of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket? Many of us were undoubtedly awestruck by the level of ingenuity possessed by AI and how capable it now is. Nevertheless, I would like to believe that, not everyone feels this optimistic about the capabilities of AI in general.
| If you are in a hurry; This article is notifying software developers in Harare, Zimbabwe of an upcoming developer workshop on Saturday 27 April 2024. Just click this link to register to attend:
https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-harare-presents-build-with-ai-harare/
According to one of the organisers, everyone is free to attend even if they come from a non-technical background.
I am tempted to believe that many people have convoluted feelings about AI, like I do. Although AI has a lot of positives, it could also have undesirable effects on livelihood. Think of this, AI is now capable of generating artistic masterpieces, writing software code, controlling autonomous vehicles and conducting job interviews. Its applications are virtually innumerable and it is only getting better at doing jobs that used to require human intelligence. No wonder why many people feel threatened by the emergence of AI. More than ever, many people fear for their job security.
It has gotten serious even to the point where popular names in the music industry such as Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, Katy Perry and others have signed an open letter calling on tech companies and developers to not undermine human creativity with AI generation tools, (Find the story here). I also read a LinkedIn post in which some influential figures threatened to promote mass boycotts for job interviews conducted by AI.
Will any of these attempts against AI’s pending dominance amount to something? I am no prophet and so I wouldn’t want to place my bet on that. I am just but a humble full-stack developer grappling with the question of whether AI will exterminate my chances of working as a software developer in the future. I was especially astounded to learn of Devin, which is dubbed the world’s first AI software engineer. According to OpenCV, Devin is an autonomous AI model that can plan, analyze, and execute complex code and software engineering tasks with a single prompt. What follows is that AI software development models can generate code and fix bugs faster and unlike humans, those models are not predisposed to fatigue. So what do you think of the future of software developers in the wake of such immense technological advancement? Maybe we should, just like everyone else, attempt to stop AI in its track to widespread dominance.
Whatever the case may be, I have come to learn that no one can single-handedly abate technological change from occurring. “Change is always upon us”, I once wrote, “It usually comes to us, full steam ahead like a huge unstoppable locomotive with great momentum. Our best bet at surviving is on purposefully jumping onto that locomotive of change and moving along with it.” We must adapt, that is.
I still get goosebumps to think that I once conceived such a meaningful and optimistic piece of philosophy. Naturally, when met with crisis or uncertainty, some humans tend to bury their heads in the sand, remaining “blindly” optimistic that any impending changes, (in our case, AI) won’t have any undesirable effect on them. However, on the other end of the spectrum some may tend to feel rightfully threatened by an emerging technology and yet still choose to feel helpless about the situation.
A recent conversation in one of the software developer WhatsApp groups which I am a member of, revealed to me just how much some developers are uncertain about the future, especially with AI in the picture. Will AI eventually wipe out a majority of software developer jobs in the future? Should we view AI as a threat or as an “opportunity”? Well following the optimistic piece of philosophy I previously laid out we should view it as an “opportunity” to enhance our, workflow as developers. We could even integrate it into the software products which we build to give users a seamless experience. Using AI we could develop AI-powered search features in our apps, chatbots and umm, yeah umm.
I ran short of quick examples as I wrote that part, because I am yet to up my game in terms of learning about AI and all its offerings. That goes to show that if we are to envisage practical use cases for AI in the software that we develop, we have to be well versed with what it is capable of and how it may be utilised with various kinds of software development tools. There is also a need for some “inspired” horizontal thinking or thinking outside the box in terms of realising possible areas in which AI can be utilised. Thought leaders on AI technology call it “developer empowerment”, in the wake of AI programming assistants. That means that a developer has to continuously learn and gain perspectives from their colleagues through tech workshops, online forums and blog posts.
That’s why I was particularly thrilled to learn that a Google Developer Group in Harare will be hosting a workshop for all software developers, on Saturday 27 April 2024. The workshop is themed, “Build with AI Harare”.
Registration Link: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-harare-presents-build-with-ai-harare/
Venue: Impact Hub Harare, 194 Baines Avenue Harare
Time: 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM GMT+2
The workshop description reads A walkthrough on building using Gemini AI and Vertex AI. In this session, we will be building a realtime conversational app using Google Gemini AI using Node/Web/Flutter. Our session will include integration of Gemini AI to projects using JavaScript, then we will also host a NodeJS workshop to complete a walkthrough on how to build on the Web.
In addition to the main agenda listed in the description, I am sure the workshop will present huge networking opportunities. I have also been told that even though the event description fits software developers, the talks that will be presented cater for everyone including those from non-technical backgrounds. I am really looking forward to it. See you there.
Strive Karadzangare is an Audiology Graduate, a self-taught Fullstack Developer (React & NodeJS) and Tech Enthusiast. I enjoy building good looking web and mobile applications. I am currently building a group meals planner and food budget app using React Native. Also learning Java as I look forward to landing my first internship role.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/strive-karadzangare-88902311a/
Email: strikay8 at gmail
What’s your take?