AI programming turning known unknowns into unknown unknowns.
You know when you get a feeling that something is trending some way? There is a subset of people I see building with AI who are giving me that feeling. Here are some loose thoughts.
The feeling is that people no longer know what they do not know. Because they have not given it any thought. Because the AI has filled in the gaps. Or rather, they assume the AI has filled in the gaps that are wholy unknown to the user.
I have (rarely) configured a VPS so I could host some sort of app, or just my own personal website. I almost never did it completely by myself, because I know what I do not know. Things like network firewalls for instance.
These were known unknowns. And as the quote goes:
He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is simple. Teach him.
I have been learning. And still am. I am currently working on a playbook for a VPS configuration that I think would pass many of the asks I get as a CISO from day one: anti-malware scans, intrusion detection, the lot.
But I also see the people who just deployed an app. The flavour-of-the-month AI has done it for them. Coolify on some sort of VPS. No firewall, no notifications about things popping up in the system logs, not even any system updates enabled.
That is not to judge. Because I have been there. I have had that years old Debian server, no unattended-upgrades turned on, and suddenly I lack the knowledge to upgrade my way out of it.
But notice: that was a known unknown of mine.
Speaking with these people who have done their AI-assisted deploy, they did not know. In their mind the correct server OS was chosen. The Coolify configuration does work. They never gave any thought to what was actually needed for a server OS. The AI-assistant could have told them, but they did not know to ask.
Their entire application runs on a pile of unknown unknowns.
He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun him.
Do not shun the person. But understand that you must first teach them that they do not know, only then can you teach them what they did not know.
But maybe shun the application.