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Why AI Struggles With Our Code (And Why It’s Our Fault)

Tom Smykowski
3 min readDec 13, 2024

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We’re living in a world where AI writes poetry, paints pictures, and even builds websites. So why does it still struggle to write or refactor our code? The problem isn’t just with AI — it’s with us. Our overly complex development practices have created a mess even the smartest algorithms can’t clean up. Let’s dive into what’s going wrong and how we can fix it.

I’ve been programming for a while now — long enough to have worked across industries, with various programming languages, teams, and frameworks. Every project is a mixed bag of solutions: some good, some bad, and some that make you wonder, “Could we have done this better?”

Often, what feels like a bad solution is actually the best available under the circumstances. But distinguishing between “bad” and “best possible” requires digging deep into the why behind a decision. That’s where things get tricky, especially as AI enters the picture.

AI Meets Messy Code

Let’s be clear: AI is no silver bullet. It’s impressive, sure — trained on oceans of data and capable of offering…

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Tom Smykowski
Tom Smykowski

Written by Tom Smykowski

Software Engineer & Tech Editor. Top 2% on StackOverflow, 3mil views on Quora. Won Shattered Pixel Dungeon.

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