10 ms·
This is cool. I've been using it mostly to explain APIs to me when I'm too lazy to dig through docs. This works surprisingly well, even for some relatively obsc
by bogwog 4y ago
This is cool. I've been using it mostly to explain APIs to me when I'm too lazy to dig through docs. This works surprisingly well, even for some relatively obscure APIs like Libre/OpenOffice's "UNO" API.
I think a really interesting use case for this would be to have it read through a long standards document and produce a compliant implementation, and maybe point out flaws/omissions. Maybe implement a full web browser from scratch? Or something less intense like a GLTF reader/writer? Or something ludicrous like a brainfuck implementation of Office Open XML, which has like ~7000 pages of specs.
- nonethewiser 4y agoWhat is it drawing from, so to speak? Isn't it the case that it's training included the actual API docs or else it is just guessing based off knowledge of other API's and inferring things from how things are named and whatnot? It just seems like there are bound to be lots of errors if it's the latter.
- throwayyy479087 4y agoIt’s the former - they feed these huge LLMs all the text on the internet
- marcosdumay 4y agoIt has the actual API docs and all the SO questions to draw from. The GP is only using it as a summarization engine. It's quite impressive how well it performs this task.
- vesinisa 4y agoYeah, I've been also asking it questions about API documentation (Android APIs specifically) and it is very good at it, often beating StackOverflow. Though I've noticed sometimes it gets fringier details incorrect but remains very self-assured nonetheless.
- layer8 4y agoIts memory is restricted to a couple pages of prompt, so I don’t think you’ll have any luck with the kinds of projects you’re mentioning. In addition, the way ChatGPT is generating output is linear, based on the sequence of preceding prompts and answers. It can’t really go back and forth (and sideways), navigating a graph of new things, as would be needed to develop a larger project. It’s like you’re trying working with someone who only has short-term memory, and also has a tendency to make up things and be scatterbrained.
- spikeagally 4y ago>> This is cool. I've been using it mostly to explain APIs to me when I'm too lazy to dig through docs. I’d be careful with this. I maintain docs for a project and asked ChatGPT how to implement a feature. The answer is in the docs obviously. It returned a really compelling step by step guide including code samples. Like a great StackOverflow answer. The problem - it was completely wrong. The code samples called API’s that didn’t exist and the whole explanation was based on the premise they did.
- bogwog 4y agoIt’s definitely wrong a lot, but that doesn’t matter since it usually points me in the right direction at least. And in some cases, I can tell it that it’s wrong and it will try again and give a better result. Compared to google/SO, I’d say that the amount of wrong/inaccurate answers are about the same, but GPT requires a lot less effort.
- jolancer 4y agoExactly! I had it make up functionality of a python library and then make calls to functions that don't exist. I imagine the further you move away from popularity, the more of a bullshitter chatGPT becomes.
- thefreeman 4y agoReplying in a sibling comment because I can't reply to the original. FYI spikeagally you appear to be shadowbanned. I would email hn@ycombinator.com if you feel it's in error.
- ilaksh 4y agoIt can do simple demos. I have a site for that. https://aidev.codes https://aidev.codes