htmx Author Tells CS Students: Yes AI Can Write Your Code, But Don't Let It
vboykis · x · 2026-10-09
Carson Gross, htmx creator and instructor at Montana State University, published an essay answering whether students should still become programmers in the AI era. His answer: "Yes, and…"
- Yes: programming is fundamentally about problem-solving with computers and controlling complexity — skills he can't imagine becoming less valuable.
- And you must write the code yourself: he sees AI as genuinely dangerous for juniors; generating code without writing it robs students of the visceral understanding needed to read code, which may be even more valuable in an AI coding future.
He warns students explicitly: don't let AI generate assignment code, or you'll fall into the "Sorcerer's Apprentice Trap" of building systems you don't understand and can't control. The piece also addresses the analogy of AI prompting as the next abstraction leap after assembly to high-level languages.
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