Some people today are discouraging others from learning programming on the grounds AI will automate it. This advice will be seen as some of the worst career advice ever given. I disagree with the Turing Award and Nobel prize winner who wrote, “It is far more likely that the programming occupation will become extinct [...] than that it will become all-powerful. More and more, computers will program themselves.”​ Statements discouraging people from learning to code are harmful! In the 1960s, when programming moved from punchcards (where a programmer had to laboriously make holes in physical cards to write code character by character) to keyboards with terminals, programming became easier. And that made it a better time than before to begin programming. Yet it was in this era that Nobel laureate Herb Simon wrote the words quoted in the first paragraph. Today’s arguments not to learn to code continue to echo his comment. As coding becomes easier, more people should code, not fewer! Over the past few decades, as programming has moved from assembly language to higher-level languages like C, from desktop to cloud, from raw text editors to IDEs to AI assisted coding where sometimes one barely even looks at the generated code (which some coders recently started to call vibe coding), it is getting easier with each step. I wrote previously that I see tech-savvy people coordinating AI tools to move toward being 10x professionals — individuals who have 10 times the impact of the average person in their field. I am increasingly convinced that the best way for many people to accomplish this is not to be just consumers of AI applications, but to learn enough coding to use AI-assisted coding tools effectively. One question I’m asked most often is what someone should do who is worried about job displacement by AI. My answer is: Learn about AI and take control of it, because one of the most important skills in the future will be the ability to tell a computer exactly what you want, so it can do that for you. Coding (or getting AI to code for you) is a great way to do that. When I was working on the course Generative AI for Everyone and needed to generate AI artwork for the background images, I worked with a collaborator who had studied art history and knew the language of art. He prompted Midjourney with terminology based on the historical style, palette, artist inspiration and so on — using the language of art — to get the result he wanted. I didn’t know this language, and my paltry attempts at prompting could not deliver as effective a result. Similarly, scientists, analysts, marketers, recruiters, and people of a wide range of professions who understand the language of software through their knowledge of coding can tell an LLM or an AI-enabled IDE what they want much more precisely, and get much better results. As these tools are continuing to make coding easier, this is the best time yet to learn to code, to learn the language of software, and learn to make computers do exactly what you want them to do. [Original text: https://t.co/HdI3Jb9HmF ]

I'm teaching a new course! AI Python for Beginners is a series of four short courses that teach anyone to code, regardless of current technical skill. We are offering these courses free for a limited time. Generative AI is transforming coding. This course teaches coding in a way that’s aligned with where the field is going, rather than where it has been: (1) AI as a Coding Companion. Experienced coders are using AI to help write snippets of code, debug code, and the like. We embrace this approach and describe best-practices for coding with a chatbot. Throughout the course, you'll have access to an AI chatbot that will be your own coding companion that can assist you every step of the way as you code. (2) Learning by Building AI Applications. You'll write code that interacts with large language models to quickly create fun applications to customize poems, write recipes, and manage a to-do list. This hands-on approach helps you see how writing code that calls on powerful AI models will make you more effective in your work and personal projects. With this approach, beginning programmers can learn to do useful things with code far faster than they could have even a year ago. Knowing a little bit of coding is increasingly helping people in job roles other than software engineers. For example, I've seen a marketing professional write code to download web pages and use generative AI to derive insights; a reporter write code to flag important stories; and an investor automate the initial drafts of contracts. With this course you’ll be equipped to automate repetitive tasks, analyze data more efficiently, and leverage AI to enhance your productivity. If you are already an experienced developer, please help me spread the word and encourage your non-developer friends to learn a little bit of coding. I hope you'll check out the first two short courses here! https://t.co/lTupltSZkT