Learn how to program without AI. Learn about software engineering, including algorithms, data structures, software architecture and design, the lot. Work on projects entirely without AI, and once you have completed some projects, work on some more, also without AI. Continue until you have mastered software engineering.
Only once you can engineer and develop whatever you want _well_ use AI, as you will have to direct said AI to follow your design, understand everything the AI spits out, and clean up after the mistakes it makes -- things that require you to be able to program _better_ than the AI in the first place. Never make the mistake of thinking that the AI can come up with a worthwhile design for you.
Always remember that what AI produces fundamentally cannot be trusted as is -- generative AI 'hallucinates' by its very nature -- and that unlike code you written before yourself you won't truly understand what it is 'trying' to do off the bat. Sure, you may have written natural language directions for the AI, but natural languages are often ambiguous and often do not fully signal intent, so the AI may not have done what you actually intended for it to do.
Never think that quantity equals quality -- while generative AI may easily spit out reams of code, those reams of code will lack the fundamental quality of code you have hand-written yourself. Think of what the AI generates as if it were the output of a beginning junior developer chronically high on meth, with everything that entails.
Only once you can engineer and develop whatever you want _well_ use AI, as you will have to direct said AI to follow your design, understand everything the AI spits out, and clean up after the mistakes it makes -- things that require you to be able to program _better_ than the AI in the first place. Never make the mistake of thinking that the AI can come up with a worthwhile design for you.
Always remember that what AI produces fundamentally cannot be trusted as is -- generative AI 'hallucinates' by its very nature -- and that unlike code you written before yourself you won't truly understand what it is 'trying' to do off the bat. Sure, you may have written natural language directions for the AI, but natural languages are often ambiguous and often do not fully signal intent, so the AI may not have done what you actually intended for it to do.
Never think that quantity equals quality -- while generative AI may easily spit out reams of code, those reams of code will lack the fundamental quality of code you have hand-written yourself. Think of what the AI generates as if it were the output of a beginning junior developer chronically high on meth, with everything that entails.