Simon Willison argues that AI coding tools should help developers produce higher quality code rather than accepting lower quality output. He frames the discussion around technical debt, suggesting that AI can help avoid common debt-inducing patterns like API inconsistencies, poor naming conventions, and duplicate functionality. The article emphasizes that shipping worse code with AI is a choice, and developers should actively work to improve their processes to leverage AI for better outcomes.
Background
As AI coding assistants become more prevalent, there's growing concern about their impact on code quality and technical debt accumulation in software projects.
- Source
- Lobsters
- Published
- Mar 11, 2026 at 06:38 AM
- Score
- 6.0 / 10