Lately, I’ve been developing apps with AI every day. It’s incredibly easy. And fast. You can build out all kinds of features instantly.
And the AI we use for development keeps getting smarter. Things that used to be impossible are now just handled automatically without you even asking.
AI is getting smarter at an insane pace—and the speed at which it’s improving is also accelerating. It’s basically an exponential curve of intelligence growth.
In the engineering world, it feels like every week there’s a new breakthrough: “AI just took a huge leap!”, “This new AI just came out!”, “This new tool will change everything!” News like that keeps dropping, and everyone’s just totally exhausted from trying to keep up.
And now that anyone with an idea can whip up a new service in no time, people are starting to realize: “Wait a second… if anyone can build apps instantly, then anyone can steal them just as quickly.”
We’re already seeing cases abroad where teenagers are making apps with AI and pulling in over $1 million a month, and these stories are popping up everywhere.
In the past, even if you saw something like that, development itself was such a huge barrier that most people couldn’t copy it. But now, with AI building things at breakneck speed, you just need to study a little and you can copy almost anything.
So saying, “I’ll win by developing faster than anyone else!” is really just a fast track to burnout. Even though AI was supposed to make our work more efficient, now the competition is fiercer than ever, and you have to work nonstop just to keep up.
What’s worse, AI-assisted work really drains your brain. It’s like having a team of assistants who finish tasks in seconds and are constantly waiting for your next command. The mental load is intense.
So what should we do in times like this? You have to start with the assumption that your work will be copied. Before you even begin, you need to ask yourself: “Will I still want to keep building even after someone copies it?”
For me, I’ve always tried to make things I personally want. So even if similar apps or services pop up, I often feel like “Hmm, it’s not quite what I want,” or “I wish they’d done this part differently,” and that helps me stay motivated.
Worst case, if someone ends up building something better than what I’m making, I’ll just use theirs—and I’m fine with that. That’s the mindset I’ve had all along.
That might be the advantage of building small, solo projects. It’s a different story for startups—this era is tough for them.
So in an era where things can be cloned in an instant, what should we consider our real strength? That’s a tough question.
I think it was someone from ChatGPT who said in an interview that once AI handles all the programming, everyone will become a kind of logic designer. The differentiating factor then will be each person’s individual sense.
And yeah, I can see that. If you use a product for long enough, you start to notice the taste or vibe that comes from the creator’s sense of style.
But when we enter an era where even UI designs are generated by AI, it’s obvious that nice-looking designs will also get copied instantly.
So I started wondering—what are the things AI really can’t copy?
After a lot of thought, I came to a simple answer: grit. I know it sounds old-fashioned. But I mean the kind of passion or persistence that keeps you going even when things get hard.
When you run a service, you’ll get complaints from users, strong competitors might appear, you might get hacked, data might vanish, you might get bashed on social media—you name it. And of course, there are personal life issues too.
The longer you keep going, and the bigger your service grows, the more of this kind of trouble you’ll encounter.
At those times, what keeps you going is your love for the product, your passion, your grit. Without that, your motivation just crumbles and you end up quitting.
So in the end, I think we should just quietly keep building the things we really want to see in the world. That’s the same conclusion I’ve always come back to here.
When I think about it, Voicepaper has been around for over 10 years now if you count its predecessor, Lisgo. I made it because I wanted it, and I still use it myself. That’s why AI has actually boosted my motivation even more. Similar tools keep popping up, but if I want something that matches my exact taste, I have to make it myself.
*I've made Text-to-Speech, Money Tracker, and Timer apps. About Me.
