Google Drive solved the storage problem. Google Cloud tackled processing power. Google Colab addressed the development challenge. And now, Gemini has stepped up to solve the intelligence problem. With these pillars in place, Google has created an unparalleled environment for a fully detached, cloud-based development experience; a significant head start in the race for tech supremacy.

On the other hand, I have great admiration for the combined power of Microsoft. With Visual Studio, the most popular code editor, GitHub, Copilot, Azure, and their close partnership with OpenAI, Microsoft has built a formidable ecosystem in its own right.

Programming has evolved dramatically since the 1980s, when a simple text editor was considered a luxury. Today, weʼre entering an era where coding, execution, deployment, and consumption happen almost as quickly as you can think of an idea. Itʼs as if weʼre approaching a “mind-readingˮ cloud where development is seamless and instantaneous.

However, the essence of hands-on, fine-tuned development still thrives. There are core engineers who prefer the simplicity of a basic text file, often working without even a syntax highlighter. We need these developers now more than ever. They are the true teachers and data scientists who can train the next generation of AI. Without their expertise, AI risks becoming malnourished, left to consume "artificialfood" generated by other algorithms or AI copilots.

At its core, programming is about solving problems, and coding is the process of translating those solutions into a language that machines can understand. The best programmers are those who are deeply familiar with a wide range ofproblems and their corresponding solutions.

AI, for all its advances, is not yet a great programmer because the problem domainremains largely a human legacy. But that doesnʼt mean AI wonʼt get there. As I mentioned, those “notepadˮ developers are still here, feeding the AI the knowledge it needs to eventually compete—like their own Medusa, challengingthe boundaries of what it means to code.

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 Sajith Amma

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