– and how AI transformed our way of doing it
Some of the first and most famous programmers were women. Ada Lovelace is often considered the world’s first computer programmer, and later pioneers like Grace Hopper and Margaret Hamilton helped shape modern computing. They had to invent or design their own programming languages and tools, often from scratch.
In the decades that followed, programmers were often young men who worked close to the hardware, using a bottom-up approach. They knew every function call and parameter by heart. Their main sources of information were shelves filled with technical manuals — and the skill lay in knowing exactly where to look.
As computing became more accessible, more women and people from diverse backgrounds entered the field. The rise of the internet changed how programmers learned: instead of relying on printed manuals, they could search for code examples, tutorials, and blogs online. Programming became less about memorizing documentation and more about knowing how to find and adapt the right information.
Today, with the advent of AI, programming is evolving again. Developers can now use a more top-down approach — focusing on what they want to build and asking AI tools how to do it. Online examples still serve as inspiration, but programmers no longer need to know where to find every detail; AI provides the relevant information instantly. Still, the ability to program remains essential — AI-generated code is often imperfect or incomplete. Yet, the speed and ease with which modern programmers can find solutions would have seemed like science fiction to the pioneers of the past.
Anders Hast 