AGI Is Here, Why You Still Need to Learn to Program

Author: Charles Zhang
Co-Author: ChatGPT
Published Date: 2025-03-24
Last Update: 2025-03-24 (Rev. 001)
Tags: Concept, Prediction

When I first started tinkering with code, I remember staring at a blank text editor, feeling equal parts thrill and terror. Back then, no AI was there to autocomplete my thoughts. I had to muscle my way through the syntax errors, the cryptic compiler messages, and the many-hour bug hunts. Yet as time passed, coding didn’t just become easier—it became a doorway into shaping my own little corner of the digital world. Now, we keep hearing that Artificial General Intelligence is right around the corner, ready to revolutionize everything. Some people even suggest we’ve practically arrived at the AGI era already. With AI code generators spinning up entire applications from a few lines of instructions, the question on many minds is: does this herald the end of programming as we know it?

I don’t think so. And if anything, learning to program is about to become more valuable than it’s ever been.

Picture this: you’re using one of those AI autopilot tools that writes your code for you. It feels like magic. You type, “Make me a web app that calculates monthly budgets,” and—poof—the scaffolding appears. A lot of folks believe that’s the end of the story. Why learn to write JavaScript or Python when a machine can do it faster? But here’s the catch: you still need to peek under the hood. You need to understand how those lines of code come together, why they’re structured the way they are, and how to adjust them when (not if) reality doesn’t match your initial prompt. AI is fantastic at patterns, yet it can’t grasp the deeper intricacies of your unique business logic, your subtle performance constraints, or the unexpected edge cases that creep in once real humans start using your software.

For anyone who’s spent more than five minutes maintaining a large codebase, the bigger challenge isn’t just getting something to work; it’s making sure it keeps working when you add new features, adapt to fresh requirements, or try to integrate with other systems that have their own quirks. AI is great for spinning up code, but it isn’t a wizard that can foresee the evolution of your project over time. It’s still people—people who know how to think like developers—who figure out which new libraries to bring in, how to refactor unwieldy pieces of logic, and how to ensure the entire system can scale without collapsing under its own weight.

And then there’s the matter of customization. Maybe you only need a small language model that can run smoothly on a mid-tier server. Or perhaps your company uses specialized robotics hardware that lacks standard drivers. AI code generators, by default, spit out “best guess” solutions based on public repositories and widely used tech. They’ll guess you want the standard library for X or the typical approach for Y. But if your situation is off the beaten path, you’ll need more than a guess. You’ll need the skill to mold a solution that fits your very particular puzzle. That molding can be done only by someone who understands the underlying logic and can adapt it—not just at the prompt level, but also at the gritty, behind-the-scenes code level.

A lot of us are also concerned that as AI becomes more capable, it’ll become downright hungry for computational resources. “AGI will solve everything, including energy issues,” some people predict. I beg to differ. Sure, an advanced AI might help optimize usage patterns, but we’re still stuck with physical limitations. Servers need power and cooling. Data centers have to expand. Networking gear has to handle heavier traffic. Unless you’re just spinning up a hobbyist app, you’ll have to factor in these practical constraints. Programming, at its core, is about solving problems within specific parameters, and big energy constraints are about as real as it gets. Knowing how to write efficient code, or at least how to refine AI-generated code to be efficient, can mean a huge difference in cost, performance, and environmental impact.

I can’t help but imagine a future where AI—perhaps even an AGI—is my collaborator, not my replacement. A well-tuned system can act like an exceptionally skilled teammate who sparks creative ideas, handles repetitive tasks, and streamlines development workflows, but it won’t do everything for me. It still lacks the deeper intuition about my project’s soul, the unique wrinkles in my target market, and the intangible knowledge my team accumulates through trial and error. Good developers must interpret shifting needs, navigate unpredictable obstacles, and sometimes invent brilliant new methods when the usual solutions fail. AI is powerful, but it’s a powerful ally—never the total stand-in.

There’s also something personal about writing software. I’ll never forget the satisfaction I felt the first time I got a real, paying user to click a button in an app I coded—and it worked. My code did that. There’s an undeniable sense of authorship and creative pride you get when you truly grasp the engine behind the curtain. If your AI assistant writes everything for you, sure, you might feel clever at first, but once the novelty fades, you’ll realize that any deeper control or customization still relies on you knowing the language of computers.

So yes, maybe you can skip the step-by-step tutorials on how to write loops or handle memory allocation if you plan to rely on AI from the get-go. But eventually, if you want to do serious work, you’ll need a working knowledge of how code actually operates—much like if you wanted to become a great chef, you’d need to know how flavors combine in the pan rather than only reading recipes. That knowledge is your foundation, your safety net, and your launching pad for real innovation. It lets you fix the bugs that an AI can’t see and harness the creative potentials an AI can’t imagine.

From my perspective, the looming arrival of AGI (or whatever follows next in AI’s evolution) isn’t an obituary for programming. It’s more like an invitation. AI promises to handle the rote, repetitive tasks that used to chew up our time and patience, so we can tackle bigger challenges. The catch is that we have to be prepared to step up to the plate as architects, guardians, and creative minds behind the code. That calls for deeper expertise, not less. The bigger the AI wave, the more crucial it is for us to know how to surf, rather than just watch from the shore.

Yes, AGI might be just around the corner. Some might argue it’s basically here. But if you’ve ever wanted to shape the future instead of letting it roll over you, I’d say learning to program is still your best move. We’re on the brink of an era where more possibilities than ever are at our fingertips. The trick is knowing how to seize them, and that starts, in no small part, with writing a few lines of code yourself.

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