Everyone Can Do Everything

Web development was never my thing. All the CSS knowledge put me off, but it was pretty much mandatory in the 2000s, thanks to Internet Explorer and other pseudo-standards. And the forced use of JavaScript, for me a nightmare.

A Website in 2 Hours

But I built this website, almost completely, in under 2 hours. A prompt referencing my old WordPress site, the requirement for “something nerdy-looking”, multilingual support, and no cookie banner needed. A few minutes later, most of it was done, just some visual fine-tuning left.

I did take a careful look at the server-side part of the contact form though, to make sure misuse was as unlikely as possible.

Was It Really Just 2 Hours?

Luckily I also checked my social media links. The AI had simply made them up, instead of using the ones correctly listed on my old site. That made me suspicious, so I went through everything carefully again.

Then the final test: does the contact form actually send me emails? No. An error message had even been implemented, but it shows every single time. Another 2 hours later, with AI help, the issue was found. The SMTP port for sending mail had been blocked by the hosting provider. The AI couldn’t have known that.

Anyone Can Do This!

I think almost anyone can reach that initial result in the same time, given a bit of practice with prompting. Prompting is something you can learn, or let the AI guide you through finding the right structures. Fixing the obvious bugs and inconsistencies should be manageable for most people, with a careful eye and a few user tests. At least if you’ve spent some time with websites and the technology behind them.

Should Everyone Do This?

No. Anyone who doesn’t know their way around will get stuck somewhere and won’t know how to proceed. A non-technical person couldn’t have fixed the contact form bug the way I did. AI tends to start tinkering aimlessly, trying things out, each time convinced it has now identified the problem. And sometimes asking you to run security-critical commands on your server that would make any Linux admin’s hair stand on end.

Dear Website Owner

And it’s not just about the technical side, there are legal topics too. When do I need a cookie banner? How can I avoid needing one, and how do I make sure the generated code actually does what I think it does? What are the pros and cons of self-hosting the fonts I use? Am I even allowed to? What data is being stored, and how does that affect the privacy policy page, and why do I even need one?

Experience is what helps here. AI can help too, and quite well. But you need to know what to ask and how to ask it. It can offer answers, but it takes no responsibility.

The Ends Justify the Means

Some designer friends immediately responded with “you can tell right away it’s AI-generated.” Fair enough, I don’t care. I wanted a simple site, without near-daily WordPress plugin update notifications. And honestly, 9 out of 10 WordPress sites are immediately recognizable from their template too. Either way, I solved a problem in no time that would previously have required hiring a designer and a web developer.

Can Everyone Do Everything Now?

Sometimes it feels that way. AIs tend to agree with you, reinforce your existing bias, and never push back. That’s dangerous, especially when it comes to important things. That includes boring topics like data protection and governance, but those are part of the deal.

Software is far more than the colorful screen you interact with on your phone or laptop, at least 80% is invisible. Software development is the whole process: requirements analysis, non-technical and technical design, operations, scaling, and everything that makes a product something you might actually sell to customers. AI can help with a lot of it, and for some parts a final review is enough. But there are components and processes that need to meet requirements that (at least for now) no AI can fully cover.

The problem isn’t the technology, the tool. The problem is that the person on the other side doesn’t know what they don’t know. And thinks they’re done.

What if a pilot who knows a fair bit about planes adjusts the autopilot software himself using AI, right before the flight? Would you get on board?