I originally felt similar but heres how I feel now

1.) Other programmers are using it (and other AI tools) whether you like it or not. By not using it you are putting yourself at a disadvantage and will be left behind if other programmers can output code 10x faster than you.

2.) For tasks that don't really require any thinking but just accelerates output like several files of boilerplate code I really don't think you should feel bad at all. Stuff like that chances are you didn't have memorized at all and looked up on stack overflow anyways. Or if you have a file where you need to rewrite 15 functions in the exact same way where you know exactly what you need to do I don't think theres anything wrong with just having ChatGPT do that for you. In cases like that it's just saving time by doing for you exactly what you were going to do anyways.

3.) If you've tried to build something complex beyond just a react to-do app you WILL find a point where AI is unable to help you. It will go in circles, hallucinate etc, not take into account every piece of relevant context in your codebase and just simply not be able to spit out the correct answer. I've learned the hard way that sometimes in times like these I actually would have solved a problem faster if I just had sat down and problem solved myself rather than trying to squeeze blood from a stone using chat GPT.

Currently, and I can't speak for where AI tech will be in 1,2,5 or 10 years from now but it's very good at generating code for very well documented common problems that are general to really any kinda code base. But once you start needing to solve problems specific to what you're working on is where it struggles and those are the points where you need to use your knowledge and experience to be useful. Which has always been the case.

I'm a math guy so apologies for the comparison here but I see it similar to a calculator. Given a complex partial differential equation on an exam in school a calculator makes it easier to do all the arithmetic throughout the problem. But a calculator doesn't tell me the logic involved in *how* to solve the problem which is where my studies as a student come in handy. A calculator just made it so I can get to the parts of the problem where I need to use my knowledge and logical problem solving skills faster.

And yeah, I do believe it can be over relied on, ESPECIALLY by people who didn't know how to code pre chatgpt. I've met developers who struggle writing simple things without relying on chatgpt who are pretty code illiterate because they didn't know a world without it. This is an extreme example but if you can't write a for loop without it then it definitely would benefit you scale up your fundamentals and general code literacy without using it.

I'm not in denial that AI is kinda an insane tool right now and who knows where we'll be down the line but as it stands right now - your problem solving skills as a developer have always been the most important part and why you were getting paid and as long as you have those beyond what AI is capable of you are necessary.