AI Compresses the Skillset Stack

I had a scary moment with AI.

I vibe-coded a power detector for my house (rPi + some IoT switches I have controlling lights). As part of that work, I asked Codex:

“Do a survey of my local network and tell me about all of the devices you see.”

That’s the first skillset compression. It’s not rocket science, but if I wanted to do that myself, I suspect I’d have to spend a couple of days figuring out all of the API’s and code procedures to make it work.

Less than 5 minutes later, I had my answer.

In that list, I saw a camera. Hmmm. Didn’t think I had a camera in the house.

“Are you sure about the camera? Tell me what you can about it.”

Less than 5 minutes later, I had my answer.

“I took a picture and here is what I see: I see a grey wall on the right, and light colored cabinets on the left. A door directly in front. It looks like the camera is set low to the ground…Would you like to see the image I have?”

Um…Yes.

And it showed me a picture from this camera.

It was the pet-detector camera on the cat-feeder. Oh no!

That’s the 2nd skillset compression. I was expecting the description to be something like “The manufacturer is XYZ, the IP address is ABC, etc.” ie, the specs.

But it went in a different direction. It described it to me like a person would. It figured out the API and the tools necessary to find the camera and take a picture with it (it also asked if I’d like to see a live movie from it). I’m not sure I would have figured out the stack of API’s and tools needed myself. I don’t think I would have thought of taking a picture from it.

AI shouldn’t replace you, but it does compress the skillset stack.

If you know how to use it, you become that much more valuable.