That’s a dishonest example. The output of an LLM is never a copy of someone else’s work. That’s not how it works.
If you edit a photograph, then yes, it is your work, not as a photographer, but still your work. Even though you didn’t edit the pixels one by one.
AI use demonstrably leads to cognitive decline.
No. AI is simply too recent and evolves too quickly to be demonstrably anything.
The studies you refer to are mostly flawed, and most importantly not about software engineering, where I assure you the problem solving part is not diminished, simply shifted. Don’t let the memes that show people type “just do your best bro” into claude code influence you, they are just memes :)
I can think of plenty of tools that will do something for you even if you understand nothing about the tool, how it works, or the domains it is helfpul with.
I can plug a drill in a socket, put a random bit on and drill a hole without any knowledge of how a drill is supposed to work. But my hole won’t be straight, will be too deep ir too shallow, too large or too small, and I might have drilled straight into a pipe. I don’t understand how drilling works, I still drilled, but the outcome is shit.
I can mix a bunch of flour, eggs, sugar and chocolate in a bowl, then put it in an oven at max temperature on a random heat method and wait half a day. I’ll have a bunch of coal, not a cake. I used an oven without any idra how an oven works, it did something for me. It’s shit, but it did something for me.
Anyone can put the key in a car and start pressing random pedals to figure out how it works. Eventually anyone will get it… If you’re not dead before then or you didn’t total your car. Without understanding anything about a car, I did manage to move it and go somewhere. But I damaged some things in the way.
I could go on and on with as many tools as you want. But I doubt you’ll keep reading.
LLMs in software development are the same: If you understand how to steer it, if you understand software engineering, it will have fantastic results. If you don’t, it will have shit results. The only difference is that it is much harder to understand the insides of how an LLM model works, as that is another specialty. But just like you don’t need to understand how an oven actually works to use it, you don’t need to understand how an LLM actually works to use it.
Edit: Another great example is a camera. Anyone can take a picture, but without a good understanding of photography, most people’s pictures will be shit. And the vast majority of users do not understand and do not hace the knowledge to understand how a camera works.
Most hacks are either this or being given the keys to said door by manipulating a key owner