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Rahul Giri
Rahul Giri

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AI Is Still Useless at Solving Real UI Errors: A Brutally Honest Developer Rant

#typescript #ai #chatgpt #react

Let me save you hours: don’t blindly trust AI to fix real-world UI or TypeScript errors.
It will give you 5 “confident” answers — none of which work — and keep missing the obvious.

I just spent an hour debugging a simple MUI Grid + TypeScript error. And ChatGPT?
It failed spectacularly. Repeatedly. Here's proof, for this block i was getting TS error for child Grid inside map() function -

        <Grid container spacing={2} padding={20} justifyContent="center">
            {products?.map((product) => (
                <Grid item xs={12} sm={6} md={4} key={product.id} sx={{ width: 300 }}>

                    <Card sx={{ height: "100%" }}>
                        <Image
                            src={product.image_url}
                            alt={product.title}
                            width={300}
                            height={200}
                            style={{ objectFit: 'cover' }}
                        />
                        <CardContent>
                            <Typography variant="h6">{product.title}</Typography>
                            <Typography variant="body2" color="textSecondary">
                                {product.description}
                            </Typography>
                            <Typography variant="subtitle1" fontWeight="bold">
                                ₹{product.price}
                            </Typography>
                        </CardContent>
                    </Card>
                </Grid>
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🚨 The Actual Error:

No overload matches this call.
  Overload 1 of 2, '(props: { component: ElementType<any, keyof IntrinsicElements>; } & GridBaseProps & { sx?: SxProps<Theme> | undefined; } & SystemProps<...> & Omit<...>): Element | null', gave the following error.
    Property 'component' is missing in type '{ children: Element; item: true; xs: number; sm: number; md: number; key: string; sx: { width: number; }; }' but required in type '{ component: ElementType<any, keyof IntrinsicElements>; }'.
  Overload 2 of 2, '(props: DefaultComponentProps<GridTypeMap<{}, "div">>): Element | null', gave the following error.
    Type '{ children: Element; item: true; xs: number; sm: number; md: number; key: string; sx: { width: number; }; }' is not assignable to type 'IntrinsicAttributes & GridBaseProps & { sx?: SxProps<Theme> | undefined; } & SystemProps<Theme> & Omit<...>'.
      Property 'item' does not exist on type 'IntrinsicAttributes & GridBaseProps & { sx?: SxProps<Theme> | undefined; } & SystemProps<Theme> & Omit<...>'.ts(2769)
index.d.ts(64, 5): 'component' is declared here.
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🤖 Here’s What ChatGPT Told Me (Wrongly):
“Wrap your Grid in a Box”

🤦 Useless. Not related. The error clearly talks about a component prop, not layout.

“Add container or item correctly”

Already done. Didn’t read my code. Copied this from a generic Grid tutorial.

“Wrap Grid with a custom CustomGrid wrapper to ‘relax’ TypeScript”

type CustomGridProps = React.ComponentProps<typeof Grid>;
const CustomGrid = (props: CustomGridProps) => <Grid {...props} />;
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🤡 This was a joke. Hides the error instead of fixing it. Just sweeps the problem under the carpet.

“Update your MUI version”

Bro. That’s like telling someone with a stomach ache to change their house. Stop it.

“Maybe it’s a hydration issue?”

That’s from another playbook entirely. Completely irrelevant to this error.

🧠 What AI Didn’t Do That Any Human Would:
Actually read the error message: it clearly said "component is missing".

Notice that MUI now expects component as a required prop in certain cases.

Observe that the type mismatch came from JSX element inference, not from MUI usage.

✅ My Fix (One-Line):
Just follow what error says, add component prop and remove all those props mentioned in array

<Grid component={"div"}   key={product.id} sx={{ width: 300 }}>
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Yes. That’s it. Just that.Super simple.

🔥 Final Words
AI is a tool. Not a developer.

It pretends to help by vomiting 5 suggestions — all surface-level — but it can’t:

read an error like a real dev

understand modern TS + UI framework nuance

debug based on context

If you’re a working developer, you still need to think. Read. Analyze. Debug.
AI won't do that for you — at least not yet.

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