There's a fascinating debate happening right now on Hacker News: "If AI writes your code, why use Python?" It's sitting at 400+ points and hundreds of comments.
The argument is basically: if AI generates your code anyway, language choice matters less. The runtime matters. The ecosystem matters. But the syntax you type? Less so.
But here's the question nobody's asking in that thread:
If AI writes your code, why are you paying $20/month for the privilege?
The hidden cost of AI-assisted development
Most developers using AI coding tools are on one of:
- ChatGPT Plus: $20/month
- GitHub Copilot: $10/month
- Claude Pro: $20/month
- Cursor Pro: $20/month
If you're using two of these (common), that's $30-40/month just to write code faster.
For a developer in San Francisco earning $200k/year, that's noise.
For a developer in Lagos, Nairobi, or Manila earning the local equivalent of $15-30k/year? That's 1-3 days of salary. Every month.
What I built instead
I run SimplyLouie — Claude API access for $2/month.
Not $20. Not $10. $2.
Here's the curl command:
curl -X POST https://simplylouie.com/api/chat \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"message": "Review this Python function and suggest improvements",
"context": "production code, prioritize readability"
}'
Same Claude model. Same responses. Ten times cheaper.
Why the language-vs-AI debate misses the point
The HN thread is asking "does Python still matter if AI writes code?"
The real question is: who has access to AI-assisted coding at all?
When the baseline cost is $20/month, you've already excluded:
- Most developers in Southeast Asia
- Most developers in Africa
- Most developers in South Asia
- Most junior developers anywhere
- Most students everywhere
The "AI democratizes coding" narrative breaks down when the tools cost more than the median developer's daily wage in most of the world.
The actual numbers
| Location | ChatGPT cost | % of avg daily dev salary |
|---|---|---|
| USA | $20/month | ~0.5% |
| India | Rs1,600/month | ~8% |
| Nigeria | N32,000/month | ~15% |
| Philippines | P1,120/month | ~10% |
| Kenya | KSh2,600/month | ~12% |
SimplyLouie charges:
- India: Rs165/month
- Nigeria: N3,200/month
- Philippines: P112/month
- Kenya: KSh260/month
Same AI. 10% of the price.
Back to Python
The answer to "why use Python if AI writes your code" is: because Python has the best ecosystem for the problems you're solving, and the community knowledge that makes AI outputs actually useful.
But none of that matters if you can't afford the AI tools in the first place.
So: if AI writes your code, stop paying $20/month for it.
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