AI is becoming my second brain, but who is actually in control?

While I am a technical person (or at least I like to think that), I must say that I never went crazy on programming and that I was barely scratching the surface of algorithms and other in depth knowledge. Luckily enough for my job as a software tester or even automation tester I never had to do complex things and I can say that I managed whatever was thrown at me. The thing that I did best was not necessarily on technical aspects, but rather on a broader system and business view. I had in my mind the vision for the output, but also the path to get there. The only missing peace was how to get there... and that's where AI came handy for me and became like my second brain. But there is still a question hovering about this new technology... who is actually in control? I like to think it is me as I am in the driving seat and the mastermind from what point to what point I want to get and even in which way. And that I believe it is true for now, but not sure what the future will reserve for us by pushing the AI limits more and more.

The skill of knowing what to ask

What I discovered working with AI is that I don't necessarily need to know technical stack anymore or as much. I need to know what and how I want to achieve my goal and how to communicate that properly. I can describe a problem, provide some context and let AI propose several ways forward. Sometimes the first answer is wrong, sometimes it is good, but in most cases it gives me a starting point that I can work with.

This changes the role of a technical person (like myself 😄) quite a bit. Instead of spending hours trying to remember programming syntax, libraries or work on implementation details, I can focus on designing and validating the solution and making sure it fits the bigger picture. I still need to understand what the generated code does and even review it sometimes as otherwise I am simply accepting things blindly. AI can become my second brain, but I don't want it to become my first brain. 😉

The danger of giving away the steering wheel

This is where I think we need to be careful. The more advanced AI becomes, the easier it will be to simply describe a goal and let it figure out almost everything in between. That sounds fantastic from a productivity perspective, but there is a hidden risk: if we stop understanding the process, we may eventually lose the ability to challenge the result. And from my experiences and other colleagues I caught AI sometimes lying bluntly about what he did and achieved. And when put to the fact he said: "I am sorry, I thought you were gonna handle that part."

For me, the ideal way to use it is still me being in control and use AI as an extremely capable assistant or tool. I decide what needs to be built, why it needs to exist, what constraints matter and whether the final result makes sense. AI can explore the workspace much faster than I can, but I should still be the one deciding which road to take.

At the moment I am enjoying the help that AI provides to me, but in the corner of my mind there is a fear that in the future it might turn the table around and he will take control. Not in my work (or even in it), but in general and at a bigger scale. Still for now we see gains as fewer people are memorizing every technical detail and more people are becoming good at defining problems, asking the right questions and judging the answers. And also I don't see AI as something that makes my technical knowledge irrelevant. Instead, it allows me to extend what I am capable of doing. My second brain can be incredibly powerful, but for now I still want to be the one holding the steering wheel.

The interesting question is whether we will still be able to say the same thing few years from now. But in the same time this is a technology that once it started rolling, it will never be stopped. So we can either to join it or be left behind. That or we retreat somewhere deep in the forest or on an island where technology doesn't reach us. But the future will be interesting nevertheless.