Prompt engineering vs hard coding
When the machines may or may not uphold their end of the bargain.
As an information and communication technology educationalist dabbling in AI, I got excited by the opportunities of using regular English prompt engineering signified by Andrej Karpathy’s viral exhortation that “English is the hottest new programming language”.
Programming in English, as opposed to languages like Python, C++, Fortran or Lisp, appeared as a gateway for legions of young people (not only) to get a foothold into tech careers.
But it appears that prompt engineering accumulates technical debt faster than code and the quality of code is already declining as a result.
GitHub and other sources have reported more than 50% of developers adopting AI Assisted-development during 2023.
The chart from Gitclear shows the shift:
The indomitable Gary Marcus has the detail here in his post, Programming in English might not be all its cracked up to be.