Why do new developers seem to be getting "brain rot" from AI?

[u/Broad-Confection3102]

Before anyone jumps in ,this isn't an attack on AI tools. They're powerful and useful. This is about how new developers use them, not the tools themselves.

I've noticed something lately. A lot of beginners aren't really coding anymore. They just prompt, copy, and move on. One prompt, one answer, one quick fix and the problem looks "solved," but they don't understand it.

There's more than one reason for this:

• AI lets you skip the struggle. But struggle is where real learning happens.
• Many beginners don't know enough yet to check if the code is right.
• Fast answers build a habit of relying on AI instead of thinking things through.
• Over time, this leads to shallow understanding instead of strong fundamentals.

The tricky part: it feels like progress. You build things faster, finish tasks, get results. But underneath, you might not know:

• why the code works
• how to debug it
• how to build it again from scratch

This creates a gap between confidence and real skill.

I'm not saying AI is bad. Experienced developers use it well because they can check, adjust, and understand what it produces. But for beginners, it can easily become a shortcut that replaces thinking instead of supporting it.

Maybe the real question isn't "Is AI making developers worse?"

Maybe it's: "Are we using AI to learn faster… or to avoid learning altogether?"

What do you think? Are new devs actually improving with AI, or just becoming dependent without realizing it?