By Andrew Brantly
My name is Andrew Brantly, and I am 14 years old. I am a freshman at Blacksburg High School. I am currently taking AP Computer Science A. In this class, I am learning to program in Java. We started with the basics, including the “Hello World” code snippet that defines every first-time programming class. From there, we progressed to using variables, and IF, WHILE, and FOR Statements. We have been consistently adding complexity to our programs, but after 5 months of programming, we are still relatively basic in our programs. We have advanced to building classes and referencing code from one file to the next. The overall process of learning coding has been fun, but it has also been a bit slow. A couple of weeks ago, my dad asked me if I would like to learn to code using AI to augment my abilities. He asked me if I would like to build an iOS application to create a digital binder for my Pokémon collection. I started seriously collecting Pokémon cards in the fall and have been looking for a free, easy to use, card scanning app to keep track of my collection. Most of the applications I found cost money to use their scanning features. I decided that I could just make my own app. So, in late January 2026, I started using ChatGPT 5 to assist me in programming an application that would scan Pokémon cards.
To program the application, I first initiated a chat with ChatGPT 5 and described the basic functionality of the application that I wanted to design. From there, I honed my discussion with ChatGPT until the description it used and the application that I wanted to develop aligned. Next, I began thinking about what coding language I wanted to use to program the application, and my dad and I discussed which Integrated Development Environment (IDE) I should use to program the app in. We decided that to remain consistent, I should use Apple’s Xcode to make the application. I kept it simple: the app would scan a card, pull up the online gaming card repository – TCGplayer in a browser link, the user would manually save the link of the card, and allow it to be opened whenever they wanted to check the current market value of the card. My app is different than other Pokémon scanning apps. It was simple and didn’t have all the features many of the others had. Unlike other apps out there, it didn’t have a database of all the Pokémon cards; it saved links to other website repositories. This structure allows the application to be lightweight and extensible. Even though the app was meant for Pokémon cards, it could also be used to store the price of Magic: The Gathering, One Piece Cards, Funko Pop, and much more. This variety and flexibility make it better than most apps currently available.
Programming the app was collaborative. What I did was ask ChatGPT 5 a prompt such as “Write code so that the user can easily paste a link to the app”, and it would crank out one or more chunks of code to implement what the AI thought I meant, and then it would tell me where to put the code. While I don’t know what each individual part of the code does, I am able to follow the logic of how each segment fits together to achieve overall functionality. Iteratively, using the built-in debugger in Xcode and continuously chatting with ChatGPT 5, I was able to grow and build a feature set into the application. While I am probably not skilled enough to have built my application from scratch at this time, collaboratively working with AI enabled me to use my basic coding skills to achieve something new, useful, and cool. It was much faster than it might have otherwise been if I had tried coding the application independently without AI assistance.
My experience with coding using AI appears to mirror that of many others. A 2025 mimo article states: “Traditional programming can struggle as projects grow because you must provide manual updates every time new requirements appear. In contrast, AI systems improve when exposed to new data, allowing you to optimize performance at scale.” The article goes on to discuss how once a project gets big enough, it becomes immensely difficult to update programs without AI. AI can make changes across an entire project repository before a human could do half of it. AI can be easily used to program in nearly every programming language. It’s fast, efficient, and easy to do. This prompts the question: Do we need to know how to code anymore? The answer is yes, knowing how to program will dramatically improve the quality of the code. AI is great for coding, but should only be used as an assistant.
Images: Screenshots of the Pokémon Application Under Development.
Using AI to code my app took very little time compared to how much time it would have taken. Adding the base layout, scan features, and web search features to the app took about the same amount of time as completing one Java coding assignment in my high school computer science class. An October 2025 NPR article discusses how tech CEOs say that in the next year, half of their development will be done by AI. AI is taking the programming industry by storm and might possibly remove the jobs of programmers who have a lower skill level than AIs.
I would like to be a programmer when I graduate from college. But that type of job seems to be going away. What am I and other people like me supposed to do? This process of making an app has taught me that programming is more than just code. To be a programmer you need to be an expert in what you are coding. I started making a Pokémon app when I knew how Pokémon worked. If someone who didn’t know anything about Pokémon was told to make a Pokémon app, they would have no idea where to start. They wouldn’t know where to find prices, what types of Pokémon there are, or what features (rarity, energy type) to include in the card’s description. You need to master the topic of what you are coding before you start, because you will get stuck if you don’t know what you are programming. This indicates that programming is changing, and that programmers need to learn more about what they are programming about than just the programming itself. In other words, we need to bring the human and our humanity into the code instead of simply replacing the human with code.
This app is still a work in progress, and I am continuing to develop this app and add new features.