*Was* a required pre-requisite. Natural language can be translated bidirectionally with any programming syntax.
And so if syntax is just an implementation detail and semantics is what matters, then someone who understands the semantics but uses AI to handle the syntax implementation is still programming.
> Natural language can be translated bidirectionally with any programming syntax.
Sure, maybe, but it's a lossy conversion both ways. And that lossy-ness is what programming actually is. We get and formulate requirements from business owners, but translating that into code isn't trivial.
The lossiness and iteration you describe still happens in natural language programming, you're still clarifying requirements, handling edge cases, and refining solutions. The difference is doing that iterative work in natural language rather than syntax.
And so if syntax is just an implementation detail and semantics is what matters, then someone who understands the semantics but uses AI to handle the syntax implementation is still programming.