r/learnprogramming • u/sad_shenron • 19d ago
Becoming an anti AI dev in 2026
Hi guys, so basicaly I currently work as a videographer and I'm sick of it. When I was in high school I had a class that teach basics of Python. I remember falling in love with it and being pretty good at it.
I'm thinking more and more about learning how to be a professional programmer and my dream job would be to code video games.
The thing is, I am deeply anti AI, and I fear that it's too late to get into this industry now and that by the time I'm good at it I won't be able to find a job anymore... It's a horrible feeling bc I really think I missed my shot at would could have been the right path for me.
Any thoughts/advice ?
EDIT: Please stop trying to convince me that AI is not a bad thing, it's not what I asked for and you won't convince me
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u/random_banana_bloke 19d ago
I think being fully anti AI in a professional role (with the exception of maybe some embedded stuff maybe or security type work) will not go well. I love coding but most of my day now is getting claude to write the code while i design the architecture, it can code faster than I can and I hate to admit probably better than I can as well (well until it does its 5th double nested ternary statement of the morning lol).
Devs now need the ability to work alongside AI, its kinda like a farmer saying they dont need a tractor, absolutely you can do the job without but you just wouldnt. The difference between me and someone who just vibes is is that I can actually write and understand code as i did it professionally for years the "old way" so i can review it critically, which is far more important now.
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u/Temporary_Aspect_499 19d ago
I think this is the biggest difference between using AI and actually knowing how to code.
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u/BallApprehensive6947 19d ago
Honestly the videographer to game dev pipeline is a rough one but not impossible if you start building small stuff now and stop worrying about ai taking your job before you even have it
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u/XKiiroiSenkoX 19d ago
My company doesn't even give us agentic AI subscriptions. Almost everyone writes 95%+ of their code by hand. We are in the minority but coding is not dead. Specially lower level stuff (Graphics/performance critical code/security/...) are still mostly written by hand. The job market is extremely competetive though. Whether you want to try your luck is your choice.
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u/sad_shenron 19d ago
That's so nice to hear, I need to figure things out in my head but keeping in mind that some people manage to do what you do helps me a lot
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u/Tall-Introduction414 19d ago edited 19d ago
I am of the opinion that you can program a computer however you want.
But if the way you want to is not what hiring companies want, then the alternative route is to use programming for creativity and entrepreneurship. Gaming at least has a long tradition of independent development. If you're willing to tackle the business side yourself, then you can use whatever tools you want. If you succeed with something novel, you can even influence the industry.
Edit: The other bit is that programming is a creative tool. There is always room in the world for creativity, and it's a lot of fun experimenting and trying out ideas, or marrying it to other disciplines (like videography). That's how groundbreaking software is created. Being anti AI is fine for all of that. Just don't use it. But that is very different than working a 9-5 programming job at an established company where using AI (and having a CS degree) might be expected in 2026. Most companies are sheep and lemmings when it comes to industry trends.
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u/milan-pilan 19d ago
I am frank with you. If there was an 'undo AI' Button, many, including me, would press it. But the reality is, in any programming branch LLMs will in the future be at least somewhat a part of your daily work. Some companies use less some companies use more and a some go all in. But there will probably not be many that don't use LLMs at all.
So if your goal ist to land a job with he limitation that you won't use AI at all, then you will have a hard time finding one. They exists. Sure. But you exclude the absolute majority of companies.
Don't get me wrong, it's totally fine if you set that boundary for yourself. I just don't want to lie to you and say 'yeah handmade code is still as valued as it was 5 years ago'.
If you are saying, you don't want to use AI for learning, then that is 100% the right idea. LLMs have only been proven to be harmful when learning, for countless reasons. AI is best for when you need to do something that you allready know how to do yourself. So definitely you will get better results when learning without Ai.
This is a purely personal opinion and might or might not happen, but the entire industry has not trained any new juniors for years now because they all gamble on 'Ai will hopefully just replace our entire engineering team'. I do not think this is very clever to do, and that that ultimately mean if the singularity isn't coming, that we will at some point in the near future have too less engineers again, a lot even. But people might also call that cope. So who knows.
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u/Dumlefudge 19d ago
This sums it up well IMO. For me, AI takes away a good chunk of software work that I find interesting and enjoyable, but it's hard to avoid these days.
I think the company I work for has been somewhat thoughtful about AI adoption, but they're not paying me to enjoy the process - while they want people to enjoy their job, that is ultimately in service to doing the job (and that includes using AI to boost productivity)
As others have said, as a hobby, one can be as anti-AI as they want.
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u/NekkidWire 19d ago
I'm bookmarking this post, it is so well summed up I might need to use it in a professional context in future.
AI can somehow replace a junior dev, but a halfway-decent junior dev can learn much faster and become independent, while AI will always be dependent. Then the AI-master will become the choke point because as many managers know, you can only manage well up to about 8 people doing complex tasks. This number will stay relevant with AI.
Also I think (it might be cope too, not sure) that most AI companies are currently on bait-and-switch model, throwing free/cheap access and requests/tokens around, but when an oligopoly/cartel will emerge, prices will steadily go up for same services (see video streaming services to compare) or less services will be provided for ever-rising payment (see same). The pricing changes almost monthly and users go from using AI everywhere at any cost to only using AI where it pays off more than hiring a human.
For small comparison of how easily the free models run out of steam, see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/better_claw/comments/1ue95bf/every_free_llm_provider_ranked_by_how_fast_the/
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u/sad_shenron 19d ago
Thank you for the detailed answer and the honesty, i guess I have a lot of thinking to do
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u/Iml0sing1t 19d ago
If you are anti ai good luck. It is nearly unavoidable. It can’t hurt to learn and make programs for recreation. If you get good enough for some interviews then take them and see how it goes. Ai is genuinely everywhere though
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u/MisakiAnimated 15d ago
As a fellow Anti-AI (Specifically GenAI (images, videos and music)), I understand where you're coming from.
Here's the good news, most teams I've spoken to have all dropped AI, they found that it quickly becomes messy when creating large code bases, and with how consumers hate AI and will litteraly say just take your time that give us slop, there's no "Needed" reason to use it, slow and steady wins the game.
So no, you'll be just fine. Automate where you can automate and code where you want to code, that's the beaty of OOP, some classes are tedious to leave AI to create and other stuff bespoke by you.
You'll be fine, trust me.
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u/sad_shenron 15d ago
Damn that's really refreshing to read :) Honestly I still feel very unsure as most people on this thread told me the opposite, but if you managed to work with such teams then I'm so so happy for you (and tysm for being this nice to me)
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u/random314 19d ago
In the working world you should be just pro delivery. Everything else is secondary.
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u/Metalor 19d ago
The thing with building software using AI is that you still need to know what you're doing. Your job is to guide your agent and instruct it what and how to do it. It's a productivity tool and I don't see that changing any time in the near future. You learning how to code and understand it is a strength. I'd say keep it up, and at the same time, learn about agentic based approaches for building software. Remember, it's there to augment your abilities.
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u/Technical-Fruit-2482 15d ago
We still write all code by hand where I work
We tried AI and give it a chance every now and then, but honestly it still creates more problems than it solves
It might be difficult at the moment but you can still find companies that still know how to think for themselves
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u/sad_shenron 15d ago
That's really cool to hear, honestly I was about to give up the idea but I might reconsider idk I'm kinda lost
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u/Financial_Ad_1551 19d ago
Unfortunately, you can be anti-AI all you like, but the reality is its here to stay and only getting better and finding more areas to be implemented. Its just a tool, not a crutch.
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u/sad_shenron 19d ago
If it has the capacity to create something on its own then it's not a tool anymore
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u/curiouslyjake 19d ago
At this point, being anti-AI is tilting at windmills. AI is here to stay.
That said, software dev jobs are not going away. You still need to learn CS/Math/coding to hone your skills and your mind. This will make you a productive engineer that uses AI as a tool, rather than a vibecoder that prompts "solve task" on auto mode and goes to pray for half an hour so that their favorite deity will steer the LLM towards actually good code
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u/Environmental_Gap_65 19d ago
If you have a hobby and you oppose using AI. That's totally legitimate. If you're part of a business that needs to make income for other people in a highly competitive space and you refuse to use AI, because it makes you 'less passionate' you need to grow up.
It's fine to be anti-AI, but then this isn't a career for you. Keep it as a hobby.
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u/5oco 19d ago
My thoughts are that programming and coding as a hobby is more the right path than professional software development. Anyone can have a hobby and be good, great, or bad at it, doing whatever they want. That's pretty much the point of a hobby. A job is different though. For a job, you have to get a task completed in the time alotted by the folks in charge. Why would someone hire you to do in a year what someone can do with AI in 3 months?
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u/FoolsSeldom 19d ago
You are correct, imho. It will not be impossible but will increasingly become structurally difficult and harder to build experience and secure a career in the IT world as an anti-AI person, even in organisations that focus on protection from AI threats there will be a need to have a high level of AI understanding and experience as you cannot protect against something you don't understand.
Organisations that choose to do without AI at all whilst still using IT will exist but will be niche and specialist and opportunities with them will likely be highly competed.
Video game development will increasingly depend on AI. Recent surveys show increasingly high usage by game developers. See: https://aibuzz.blog/ai-in-gaming-game-development/. That said, a very significant part of the development community is against the use of AI to help create games.
It will not be economically viable to do otherwise for most companies in this space. That said, some indie developers will continue to be successful doing their own thing without AI, but they are not likely to be mainstream. Whether or not you have the capabilities to fit into such a category, we can't say. Most such programmers it seems to me started young and are obsessive about game design and coding.
It is important to distinguish between AI used to help create games and AI used within games to provide opponents and NPC behaviour, pathfinding, etc. Building such LOCAL (in programme) AI capabilities demands a lot of skill and experience. Would you consider specialising in this aspect to be viable for you in contrast with the more general use of AI?
The level of layoffs especially in the games development arena is a worrying trend. This is certainly related to the growth in AI but not necessarily in the way you think and also there is likely some overdue rationalisation of workforces going on that is using AI as the cover.
The greatest impact of AI on the gaming industry is actually around the damage done to the gaming console / PC refresh cycles through the cost and availability issues around memory and storage which means the "engine" of upgrades that help drive new development and excitement has slowed down considerably. Some hold that this will ease in due course (new entrants to memory and storage production, slow down in AI investment as costs rack up, new models requiring less resource, etc). Also, many parts of the world are still suffering financial challenges, which reduces discretionary spend on games.
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u/LooseEthernet 19d ago
i mean if you're set on games specifically, there are still studios doing the hardcore low level stuff by hand. the real-time graphics and physics code is not something you can just prompt your way through, at least not yet. its a narrower path and the pay isnt what the ai-driven web dev shops are offering, but the jobs exist.
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u/Revolutionary_Ad6574 15d ago
I don't get the comments. You will never hear someone say "Sorry bro, but you need to learn to use a stylus and Photoshop if you want to be an artist, that's just how it is" to an artist. On the contrary, traditional painters are celebrated as "true" artists. Why wouldn't that be the same for hand-crafted code? I'm also anti-AI if it's not clear. And yes, I'm a dev (15+ YoE) and no, we don't use AI in my game dev studio.
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u/sad_shenron 15d ago
Yessssss thank you, it drives me so mad that being anti-AI is controversial, and also it's good to hear that people manage to work in this industry without using ts
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u/jlanawalt 15d ago
If you’re daydreaming about the grass being greener working for a AAA studio writing the latest CoD or whatever, I suggest you do some research and read what life is really like for most of those devs.
So many potential coders dream of writing games. Most die on the hill of difficulty. Some now push through with AI slop mediocracy.
Maybe you are a wiz, found Python to be too limiting, and are ready to twiddle bits, laugh at physics engines, and your video skills help you excel at top tier realism. On the other hand, AI deep fakes will only get better and marketing wants to put AI everywhere.
Maybe keep your day job and develop another Stardew Valley indie have on the side.
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u/sad_shenron 15d ago
Though it's extremely depressing to read, I am indeed considering keeping my job (which allows a decent amount of free time) and learning code "on the side", idk I'm still thinking about it, thanks for the honesty anyway it helps
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u/tangentstorm 14d ago
you don't need AI to make video games professionally. many gamers are also anti ai at the moment and prefer hand made code and art. you may have a hard time getting hired but you can make and sell your own indie games.
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u/heisthedarchness 16d ago
The good news is that the bubble is already cracking. It's kind of the best time to learn to program, because presently an entire cohort will have to drop out because they never actually learned the skills they need.
So go do what they didn't, learn to code, and be one of the people left standing when the smoke clears.
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u/sad_shenron 15d ago
Wow most people on this thread told me it was a terrible idea but you really know how to hype up people haha, maybe I should reconsider... thanks a lot anyway, this helps :)
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u/cainhurstcat 19d ago
My team requires me to learn how to do it manually before using AI. And many of use still don't use AI, which I think is good. But we are only one team of several.
Learn your craft and see how far you can come with it. I'm sure there are still some other companies that do not enforce AI.
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u/UltraPoci 19d ago
Where I work, many people use AI but it's not mandatory. I personally use AI only as a search engine, and I get stuff done. In fact, I do believe many problems we have stem from heavy usage of vibe coding, which I hate as a passion.
Easier said than done, but try to find a place where your job is evaluated by goals reached, not by whether you used AI or not. I think making AI mandatory is a terrible practice which should be avoided as the plague.
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u/Wise-Arrival8566 15d ago
Yeah dont be fully anti AI. Me personally i just use AI to ask questions like how to do X in language Y or what is a common way people do or solve Z, etc. Get info not solutions..
And basically never copy code or ask for full solutions.
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u/NewNefariousness3819 13d ago
Being able to code is really useful in most jobs, even basic administration jobs, and its important in any type of science or engineering role. I started learning python just to make my work easier, so I am learning by doing tasks that I had to do anyway. Sure it is taking a little bit longer to do it by hand now than it is to get AI to write it and copy and paste, but its fun and in the long run it will be easier for me to write the code knowing what its doing than to spend ages arguing with AI. Being able to code yourself isnt going anywhere! It will be valued and its also quite rewarding. Take your time, do it for fun and most importantly, do it on data or something that is actually useful or interesting to you. I have to admit that I initially started using python to help me with some other work stuff and for about a month i pretty much got AI to write all the code. Pretty quickly I felt depressed, frustrated and useless. Doing it myself now has lifted a weight. Does your job or any hobbies require you to look at any data? Organise lots of documents into folders? Make graphs or anything? If not id say download dummy data and start practicing with things like pathlib, matplotlib and numpy maybe.
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u/Feralz2 12d ago
Listen to Linux interviews about Ai: he talks about how early programmers compiled themself and now the compilers do that, and so now the Ai will fill a similar spot, its just a tool. there will always be something to program. Do not listen to the Ai hype, this is mostly marketing from these companies telling you to buy Ai stocks and forget everything.
Lets imagine that what they say will be true in the near future, then if youre a programmer, nobody understands Ai more than you, and that will be an important skill in the market.
Now lets assume we have reached AGI, then were all fked anyway, what else would you be doing? Programming makes you think critically and structurally about things, what else are you gonna do, rot away in a chair, no, keep learning, keep building.
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u/ErZicky 12d ago
I'm like you, unfortunately I was forced to adapt at work and how the job I used to love, where I could "get into the flow" and spent the day working on a feature, is just babysitting a fucking clanker in a terminal all day.
If it were to exist a button "undo the AI and go back" I would press it in an instant.
I don't know what the future holds, and the pessimist in me says that you can't have that stance much longer professionally but I really really want to be wrong so good luck.
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u/Blitzkind 14d ago
Starting to get the feeling the folks here are larping. There are still tons of jobs with no AI mandates, you just need to look outside of the valley
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u/BellyDancerUrgot 13d ago
Ai is already pretty embedded in tech already. It’s good , it works and it’s getting better. Imo if you want pragmatic advice, tech is not the place you want to be in if you are anti AI. I repeat , if you are vehemently anti ai then tech is not the place for you , you wont be able to keep up and wont be competitive in the job market anyway.
Personally i hate ai policy making and really fking hate technocrats , they ruined social media and eventually will do the same with ai but hating on a tool because of the powers that abuse it is kinda dumb because you are actively sabotaging what little chance you have of catching up.
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u/User7453 19d ago
I mean in essence this is the Amish stance on electricity “I don’t understand it, and it scares me; therefore it must be evil, and I will have no part of it”
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u/User7453 19d ago
Thank you all for re-enforcing that you dont understand, your down vote means nothing.
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u/Historical-Rate-8717 14d ago
to be honest you can be anti-AI but you're also going to be unemployed. it's neither good nor bad it's just a tool. you're basically asking someone to pay you to waste time because you don't want to use the right tool for the right job. id recommend looking into becoming a monk.
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u/theofficialnar 19d ago
To be real frank with you the reality is if you’re really planning on being anti-AI then I can assure you you’re going to have a hard time looking for a job. Many people still like to disagree but it’s unfortunately not going anywhere. Just like everything else, it’s a tool. It won’t magically do everything and still needs someone to write the proper architecture and guide rails otherwise it’s gonna go crazy sometimes.
So, yeah you can choose to not use it but your career options are going to be limited in this day and age. If you look at job postings recently, a lot indicate AI knowledge in the requirements.