What's worth building when AI can build anything?
Sue Black of Durham University and Kent C. Dodds of kody.codes explore how developers can build deliberately as AI makes software creation easier. The conversation connects decisions about shipping and developer tools with responsibility for software’s wider effects.
Building deliberately with AI
The session focuses on a distinction: being able to build something does not settle whether it is worth building. Black and Dodds discuss responsible software alongside the practical work of choosing tools, shipping changes, and maintaining what already exists.
Their conversation covers:
- Impact and restraint: understanding software’s ripple effects and considering when not to build.
- Developer education: preparing the next generation of developers for AI-assisted software creation.
- Fitness for purpose: balancing development speed with ensuring that software meets its intended needs.
- Diversity and individual impact: examining AI’s relationship with diversity in technology and the effects of software that people may not see directly.
The central trade-off is not simply whether AI can speed up development, but when that speed is worthwhile and when greater care is needed.
Session chapters
- 00:22 — What’s worth building with AI?
- 01:06 — Sue Black’s journey in technology
- 03:15 — Kent C. Dodds’ AI optimism and kodi
- 04:45 — Understanding the ripple effect
- 07:44 — Building with restraint in AI
- 10:30 — Educating the next generation of developers
- 14:41 — Ensuring software is fit for purpose
- 20:19 — AI and diversity in tech
- 23:14 — Invisible software and individual impact
- 28:25 — The million-person impact challenge