Written by Eldrex Delos Reyes Bula
There’s this weird guilt when you use AI, di ba? Like, people have made it seem na parang kasalanan, na parang cheating. There was a time, and maybe hanggang ngayon naman, na people really hated it. They’d avoid it completely, or they’d use it but hide it, like a dirty secret behind the screen. Wag na wag mong aaminin. And then there are those who use it blindly, just to pass an exam, finish a project, get the grade and forget. Copy-paste, submit, tapos.
I know I'm not that, but sometimes I still feel the guilt. Gusto ko lang naman maging honest: I am not really good at coding. Aminado ako doon. I don’t have that natural galing na parang some devs were just born with a keyboard in their hands. But I have something else .... imagination. And AI… it lets me turn that imagination into something real. Hindi lang daydream, actual thing on the screen. That feeling is something else.
And here’s the part people don’t see. It’s not just me asking a bot and then boom, tapos na. Hindi ganun. I do the planning. I do the research. I spend hours auditing and reviewing what the AI gave me. And honestly, doon ako na-fefeel na marami akong natututunan .... sa mistakes. My mistakes, its mistakes, our tangled up spaghetti code mistakes. Every error message na umaakyat blood pressure ko, every bug na nagpapa-question sa life choices ko, inaayos ko isa-isa. And that 1% of understanding I get from fixing things, from seeing how other devs structure their logic, pumapasok siya. Slowly.
That 1% matters. It builds up.
For me, these past few years, software development has become… easier. Not cheap easy, pero accessible easy. For devs, for students, for beginners na katulad ko na gusto lang subukan pero nao-overwhelm sa dami ng dapat aralin. The classroom teaches you theory, syntax, rules. But AI? It lets you experiment. You can break things and learn in a way no classroom could ever let you. It’s messy learning. Trial and error learning. You’re not scared to try a wild idea kasi may sasalo sayo kahit papaano.
So is it a crime? Yung paggamit ng AI para tulungan ang sarili mo, at tulungan din ang iba? Sometimes it feels like people want you to think so. Na dapat nahihirapan ka para valid yung natutunan mo. Pero hindi ba pwedeng iba na yung paraan ngayon? Na hindi ibig sabihin gumamit ka ng AI, wala ka nang natutunan?
I use it to help myself build things I couldn't build before. And I use it to help others too, kasi alam ko yung pakiramdam ng stuck, ng hindi makasunod, ng feeling mo ang bobo mo. If I can make someone else's learning curve a little less steep, why wouldn't I? Hindi ko inaangkin na genius ako. I just know how to use a tool, and I know how to share what little I've figured out.
Ganito lang yan eh. AI didn't make me a coding god. It just made me a more capable, more curious, and more hopeful learner. And for someone na hindi natural na magaling, that hope is everything.