Will AI make some people lazy
However, I do not believe that humans will stop creating legendary programming languages. In fact, we might be on the verge of a new era of language creation.
Here is why AI might actually fuel creativity rather than kill it, and why the “laziness” argument is only half the picture.
1. History Repeats Itself: The “Laziness” Cycle
Every major leap in technology was accused of making humans lazy, but it actually shifted where we applied our effort.
- Assembly to C: People said, “If we use C, we won’t understand how the CPU works.” True. But it allowed us to build Operating Systems (Unix, Windows) that were too complex to write in Assembly.
- C to Python/Java: People said, “Garbage collection and high-level syntax will make programmers weak.” True, but it allowed us to build the Internet, massive platforms like Google, and complex AI models.
AI is simply the next layer of abstraction. It removes the mechanical labor (typing syntax) so humans can focus on system architecture and problem-solving.
2. New Problems Require New Tools
“Legendary” languages are usually born to solve a specific, difficult new problem that current languages cannot handle efficiently.
- C was needed for system portability.
- Java was needed for “write once, run anywhere.”
- Rust was created to solve the memory safety issues that plague C++.
AI introduces massive new problems that current languages struggle with:
- GPU Compute: Python is great for AI research, but it is slow. New languages like Mojo are being created specifically to bridge the gap between Python’s ease of use and C++’s speed for AI hardware.
- Security: As we rely more on AI, code security becomes paramount. We may need languages designed with “verifiable AI safety” built into their syntax.
- Quantum Computing: This will require entirely new programming paradigms and languages (like Q#) that look nothing like Python or C++.
As long as the hardware landscape changes (moving from CPUs to GPUs/TPUs/Quantum chips), humans will need to invent new languages to harness that power.
3. AI Democratizes Language Creation
Creating a new programming language is incredibly hard. You need to write a parser, a compiler, a standard library, and an ecosystem.
- The Old Way: A small team of geniuses (like Guido van Rossum for Python, or Bjarne Stroustrup for C++) spends years grinding through low-level code.
- The AI Way: An aspiring language designer can use AI to generate the boilerplate for the compiler, write the documentation, and optimize the assembly output. This lowers the barrier to entry.
This means we might see more niche languages, not fewer. We might see “Domain Specific Languages” (DSLs) created for specific industries (e.g., a language just for genetic engineering or legal contracts) that were previously too niche to build.
4. The Difference Between “Lazy” and “Efficient”
You mentioned that AI makes people lazy. There is a risk here: if a programmer never learns the fundamentals, they cannot design a complex system.
However, laziness is often the mother of invention.
- Programmers are lazy, so they invented functions so they wouldn’t have to copy-paste code.
- Programmers are lazy, so they invented high-level languages so they wouldn’t have to write Assembly.
We want to be “lazy” about the boring stuff so we can be “creative” about the hard stuff. If AI handles the syntax, the next “legendary” language creator won’t be worrying about memory pointers; they will be worrying about how to structure code so that an AI can
understand and optimize it.
The Verdict
Will AI make some people lazy? Yes. People who only want to be “coders” (writers of syntax) may struggle.
But for Computer Scientists and Engineers, AI is a tool. It will help them design the next legendary language faster and with better optimization.
We will see the next Python or C++. It might be a language designed specifically to talk to AI, or a language that runs natively on neural network chips. The spark of creativity is still human; AI is just the faster hammer we use to build it.