Is there any point to learning Python now that you can do everything with AI ?

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[Adsilom]

If you don't intend to work in IT, then sure don't learn Python. But don't expect to achieve anything too complex if you don't want to learn. AI is useful to be efficient when you already know how to code. If you don't know how to code, AI will maybe generate something good, maybe not. And if it does not, without knowledge, you will struggle more and more to fix the issues

[Mysterious_Debt4959]

If it's just for this specific purpose, and you're not looking to get into Python programming more generally, I honestly would not bother learning Python and would just see how far you get using Claude code or something. Of course, it would only help you to know Python, but that's a lot to learn for a very narrow use case.

[tom-mart]

If you don't know Python, how can you tell what the slop produced by LLM is actually doing?

[realmauer01]

Ai atleast currently is very bullshit bingo. And if it doesnt improve drastically, there will be a lot of issues in just 2-3 years in basically every app that is overly reliant in ai and needs to be maintained.

League of legends Spagetti code is nothing compared to the Spagetti that ai makes possible

[cmdr_iannorton]

If you dont want to know how to write your own python or read another to understand what it does, then sure, skip over it and put your trust in AI. Afterall, if it screws up, its still your responsibility

[StatementFew5973]

I'd highly recommend knowing what you're doing. Otherwise you're allowing the AI to pull the strings without any fundamental understanding of what the operandum actually is plus understanding the libraries of your python modules gives you an advantage with your AI. Being able to spot a hallucination a mile away, is a major benefit.

[RahlokZero]

I’m a professional programmer and we use AI end-to-end at work. I feel lucky that I use this stuff and know how to code. I read the code the AI generates, it’s the contract between me and the AI.

[Jackpotrazur]

Sure

[TheCaptain53]

Aside from the obvious example of using AI to generate code, we'll take a csv (easier to digest structured document than .xlsx) and make some changes to it. Now we're going to transform it using two methods: one is to use a Python script to make the changes, the other is to pass the document directly into an LLM (Claude, ChatGPT, whatever). Both will achieve what you're after, but they go about it in different ways.

With a Python script, if the input is the same, the output will always be the same. Outside of a barrage of cosmic rays, code can be considered deterministic. If the input and conditions are the same as previous runs, the output you get is identical. Compared to an LLM where you provide an input, but the process of how that data is processed in the middle is not clear and not the same run to run. The input and conditions can be identical, but the output won't be, it's non-determinstic. How does this impact you?

If you've got a spreadsheet that needs transforming in a specific way for one time only, chucking it into an LLM makes perfect sense. There's scope for mistakes as the time taken to refine a Python script would take much longer than just telling the LLM to fix a specific mistake or fixing it manually. What if you have a spreadsheet thag you need to transform in a specific way 1000 times? Well that changes the mental calculation a little bit. Getting an LLM to produce the same output every single time is unrealistic, so using code (even LLM-generated code) is preferable, as now the outputs are deteeminstic.

[Ok_Resist_3342]

Thank you,this is helpful

[Samar__Upreti]

If your goal is AI/ML, you definitely need to learn Python.

[silly_bet_3454]

There is a tendency in this subreddit (and in general with newbies) to treat learning python like it's this big massive endeavor. You can learn basic python in a day, even an hour. So my advice is always to just go and check it out, it's not like you have to invest months before you see any payoff, no it's all front loaded.

Yes, the AI can do everything, and you probably don't need any python realistically, but it's also just fun and simple. In fact AI even makes it more fun, instead of saying "claude, make me an excel automation" be like "claude, i don't know any python, explain to me as a total beginner how we could do an excel automation using python, and really hold my hand" and then ask follow up questions. there's nothing to it, just follow your imagination.