>AI is a fabulous tool that is way more flexible than previous attempts because I can just talk to it in English
In an era when UIs become ever more Hieroglyphic(tm), Aesthetical(tm), and Nouveau(tm), "AI" revolutionizing and redefining the whole concept of interacting with computers as "Just speak Human." is a wild breath of fresh air.
Programming and interacting with computers in general is just translation to a more restricted and precise language. And that what's make them more efficient. Speaking human is just going the other way and losing productivity.
It's akin to how everyone can build a shelter, but building a house requires a more specialized knowledge. The cost of the later is training time to understand stuff. The cost of programming is also training time to understand how stuff works and how to manipulate them.
An inefficient computer you can use is more productive than an efficient computer you can't use.
Most people can't use mice or keyboards with speed, touchscreens are marginally better except all the "gestures" are unnatural as hell, and programming is pig latin.
Mice and keyboards and programming languages and all the esoteric ways of communicating with computers came about simply because we couldn't just talk Human to them. Democratizing access to computers is a very good and very productive thing.
That's the thing. You don't communicate with computers. You use them. You have a task to do that the computer have been programmed for and what you want is to get the parameters of that tasks to the computer. And you learn how to use the computer because the tasks is worth it, just like you learn how to play a game because you enjoy the time doing it. The task supersedes the tool.
Generative AI can be thought as an interface to the tool, but it's been proven that they are unreliable. And as the article outlines, if it can get to 70% of the task, but you don't have the knowledge requires to complete it, that's pretty much the same as 0%. And if you have the knowledge, more often than not you realize that it just go faster on a zigzag instead of the straight route you would have taken with more conventional tools.
In an era when UIs become ever more Hieroglyphic(tm), Aesthetical(tm), and Nouveau(tm), "AI" revolutionizing and redefining the whole concept of interacting with computers as "Just speak Human." is a wild breath of fresh air.