Experimenting with AI Coding. First Impressions

Cursor AI built image manipulation app

We were working on a project where I wanted to mess around with image filters and have a play with different outputs. So I thought rather than go into Photoshop I would use AI to code my own app. Lets give that a go!

So using Cursor I created an app that upscales any image to 4k upon upload then lets me apply a set of filters to the image, I can then play with the sliders depending on the strength of the affect required and save the image in various sizes and file types as needed.

So how did I find using AI coding tools?

Well, a little unsatisfying actually. The app is great, but do I feel a sense of accomplishment? Kinda... I mean it works and it does what I want it to do, but something about it feels hollow.

Iteration is simple and fun. Having loads of ideas and being able to implement those quickly is great. I had great fun implementing a new filter and then having an idea for another one and another one and another one. It’s quick once you get the code settled and working.

It's quicker than me learning Python thats for sure, but this process has just made me want to learn Python if I'm honest.

Its fine if it goes well but once you start getting bugs and things stop working for no reason, you just sit there telling it over and over whats not working but you yourself cannot input in any meaningful way and you never get a sense of having worked with someone who might also input their own ideas and suggest something you hadn’t thought of yourself. Although to be fair the AI does do that.

The debug phase took a few hours of me not really knowing what was going on when it just totally stopped working and I just had to cross my fingers that it would eventually work. Which it did thankfully.

So a mixed bag, it has made appreciate people that can actually code a whole lot more. Shit ain't easy thats for sure.

Like any of these tools, I just cant help but feel guilty that I'm accelerating the workplace emptying out of good people eventually. I don’t want to sound too negative as I’m sure it’s a tool I will use over and over but I can’t help feeling a little grubby doing it.

The future is here and it seems to me like a future where my brain will stay relatively untaxed while an AI does all the fun, process stuff. I’ll just ask it some questions, prompt it some ideas and see what it comes up with.

Anyway. The app worked a treat, it is fun remixing images quickly and playing around with ideas to make it better. So like I said a mixed bag. We already have lots of ideas for other apps. So stay tuned!

App image generation using AI coding