The Hidden Cost of AI: Moving from Tutorial Code to Production Code (opens in new tab)

If you've watched a web development tutorial in the last year, chances are you've seen someone build an "AI-powered" app. The instructor pastes their OpenAI API key into an environment file, writes a simple fetch request, and within 10 minutes, the app is magically generating text. It looks incredibly easy. So, you build your own version. It works perfectly on localhost:3000. You're ready to deploy and share it with the world. Then, the panic sets in. What happens if someone shares your link ...