AI Is Code – and Can't Be Prompted into Being Smarter

An opinion piece in The Register contends that AI is fundamentally code and software engineering principles still apply. The author argues that many practitioners try to 'prompt' their way to better performance, but real improvements require changes to model architecture, training data, or algorithms. Prompt engineering is a surface-level optimization that cannot overcome fundamental limitations like hallucination or lack of reasoning. The article calls for more rigorous engineering: version control for models, unit tests for prompts, and systematic evaluation. It warns that the industry's focus on prompting as a panacea is misguided and that lasting progress will come from deeper technical improvements.