Automatic Programming vs. Artificial Intelligence

Ever since we began programming in the 1950s, there have been two diametrically opposed tendencies within computer science and software engineering: on the left side of the Glorious Throne of Alan Turing, the tendency to perfect the Art of Computer Programming, and on the right side, the tendency to end it. These tendencies can be seen from the Manchester Mark I's "autocode" removing the need for programmers shortly afterWW2, COBOL being a language that could be "read by the management"; to contemporary "no-code" development environments; and the idea that large language models herald "The End of Programming". This vision paper looks at what AI will not change about software systems, and the people who must use them, and necessarily must build them. Rather than neglecting 50 years of history, theory, and practice, and assuming programming can, will, and should be ended by AI, we speculate on how AI has, already does, and will continue to perfect one of the peak activities of being human: programming.