4 ms·
What Kite supposedly does is crowd-source code by uploading users' code to its server and then aggregating that data to train their ML algorithm. Then they can
by matthoward 9y ago
What Kite supposedly does is crowd-source code by uploading users' code to its server and then aggregating that data to train their ML algorithm. Then they can apply said algorithm on a specific client's code to recommend autocompletion suggestions as you type.
There are plenty of great use-cases for ML in building coding tools, but the shady manner in which Kite imposes itself on Atom users who have these plug-ins installed (which is a large portion of the user-base), leaves a seriously bad taste in your mouth.
- revmoo 9y agoHow much content are they auto-completing? Seems like this could easily end up with some other organization's proprietary code auto-filling inside your project. This is very dangerous; it's either only auto-completing single standard-library function names in which case it doesn't need cloud connectvitiy, or it's auto-completing actual code which opens up users to IP issues.
- fl0wenol 9y agoThe thing is I don't trust this explanation for a second especially as it applies to non-paying customers; they could have just as easily trained a generic ML algorithm on a publicly available data set, like I don't know, the public stuff on github. Moreover, they could have trained their suggestions to actually be useful before throwing this out there as a feature set they thought people would want to use. Plus then it'd make sense for people to open up their code, as a "local dictionary" of sorts that could be prioritized over generic suggestions. But at least then it would have had demonstrated value.