Human beings have a unique capacity to learn, grow, imagine, and plan that is far different from even the most sophisticated algorithm. Humans are also uniquely concerned about ethical and moral issues that require careful thinking and wisdom.

When asked about his passion in an 1995 interview, Steve Jobs described the time he read a Scientific American article that compared the movement efficiency between various species and noted that “mankind, the crown of creation, came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list...”.

However, he then recalled seeing the part of the article where a human on a bicycle was compared to the Californian Condor, and “blew away the condor…I really remember that humans are tool builders, and we build tools that can dramatically amplify our innate human abilities…The personal computer was the bicycle of the mind” (Denning, Steve. 2011. The Lost Interview: Steve Jobs Tells Us What Really Matters. Forbes (online). Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/17/the-lost-interview-steve-jobs-tells-us-what-really-matters/‍ ).

We couldn’t agree more with Steve.

It’s true that AI is getting more powerful and capable with each new model generation. However, we believe that regardless of how powerful AI becomes, tools can never replace the tool maker.

As a company, we choose to value human creativity, problem-solving, and thinking over algorithms alone because only people can ever truly care about other people. It’s that natural human empathy that makes for great products and services.  It’s how a human being can go above and beyond to help someone out or give their best effort. 

For example, consider the fact that when two people play chess, they can shake hands and even share a meal together afterwards, but that was not the case for Garry Kasparov when he took on IBM’s Deep Blue in the 1997 re-match (IBM. “Deep Blue”. n.d. https://www.ibm.com/history/deep-blue).  The game simply ended and he walked away without getting a form of closure that comes from shaking the hands of a fellow human competitor.

The heart of the issue is this: even if an AI model can out think, outwit, or out perform a human in a given area, do we really believe that losing the human element is a price worth paying?

At PixelCraft Labs, the answer to that question is unequivocally “no”.  Just like how a baby’s smile and laugh can make one’s day, real value can’t be measured by efficiency or output alone.  Life isn’t completely defined by measurable outcomes.  There is something priceless in how humans craft and build things —with care, intention, and accountability.

We are not against AI or the use of AI. There are many practical applications of it in both development work as well as in running a business. Going back to what Steve Jobs said, it’s a tool for amplifying what we can do when properly used.

This is a brief overview of how we implement AI as a company:

• Learning new APIs and frameworks

• Getting a “second opinion” when considering various options for how to implement a new featurePerforming initial code reviews

• Generating concept art and images

• Getting a summary of how our code actually flows and works versus going by assumptions

• Assisting with brainstorming suggestions and needs

As good as AI has gotten, there are still plenty of ways relying on it can get a project into serious trouble. As a human-first development company, here are some of the steps we take to avoid these:

• AI feedback is evaluated in light of current coding best-practices and standards

• Apple-provided documentation is consistently referenced and compared with AI output

• The traditional “Google” (web) search is used to confirm AI proposed solutions

• We ask the AI model to explain its rationale for any generated code and evaluate its reasoning

• The development process starts and ends with an actual person

• A real person thinks through problems and proposes multiple solutions to AI for feedback

• Real people test each app at all development stages

• We ask our team to think through problems before turning to AI