Why Code Matters More Than Ever in the Age of AI

A software developer and essayist argues that despite AI's growing ability to generate code, the importance of code itself has not diminished — it is simply entering an era of underappreciation. The author contends that programming languages and code were never really designed for machines, which only process machine code, but have always served as a human communication medium for expressing algorithms and mental models. Concern is growing in language design communities that AI may render programming language design obsolete, with some experts questioning the future value of their expertise. The author challenges the prevailing view that AI makes code disposable, suggesting instead that, for the first time, computers are genuinely dependent on the quality and structure of the code fed into them. The piece calls for a reassessment of code's role as AI systems increasingly rely on large, well-structured codebases to function effectively.