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I just don’t feel threatened by AI at all. Maybe I’m not seeing the full picture, but the quality of your software necessarily depends on a constant re-evaluati

I just don’t feel threatened by AI at all. Maybe I’m not seeing the full picture, but the quality of your software necessarily depends on a constant re-evaluation of customer needs, business priorities, human values, etc. Lots of squishy stuff. Programming is not just taking product requirements and spitting out the correct algorithms.

systematical 4y ago
You don't think AI can improve in those regards? I highly disagree, its not this decade or even the next, but I wouldn't be surprised if things begin changing sometime in the 2040s. A decade I will be nearing retirement in but still working.
Mechanical9 4y ago
The threat isn't just from AI, unfortunately, it's from an entire class of powerful people willing to throw their money behind AI instead of behind customer needs, business priorities, and human values.
- sublinear 4y ago
  And who will prompt the AI for these powerful people?
  - tluyben2 4y ago
    The few people that do the same thing now writing code from client specs or who explain and cut up client specs to their team of programmers. Not many people are good at that, and that won’t be AI for a while yet.
HardlyCurious 4y ago
They are just trying to hire less programmers, because programmers are expensive. They will have even more business / system analysts than before. And they will still have to have programmers to piece stuff together and debug systems. They just think if they could have less programmers they would save money.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  There's a reason the world doesn't run on low and no-code platforms. This is worse, because it still takes a programmer to verify and apply changes.
  - bathtub365 4y ago
    A shocking amount of the world runs on Microsoft Excel already.
cmrdporcupine 4y ago
Indeed. I yearn for a time when I just got to pump out code. Actually writing code in quantity hasn't been a part of my job for years. Figuring out what to do is more of the job than how. I have no doubt that machines can write a lot of the boilerplate code going forward. But that's just the evolution of tools. Actually building systems; composing them and keeping them running... this is a whole other art.
fckgnad 4y ago
chatGPT is not a threat. ChatGPT is an omen for the threat that currently exists in the future. A lot of people haven't really played with chatGPT in depth. This thing is next level. It's not just spitting out generic things, there is genuine understanding here and genuine creativity. Here's a snippet from a chatGPT conversation I had based on your post: ME: Give more examples of squishy stuff that software developers need to handle. chatGPT: 1. Ethical considerations: As technology advances, software developers may need to consider ethical implications of the products they create. For example, a developer working on a facial recognition system may need to consider issues of privacy and bias. 2. User experience (UX) design: Creating a software that is easy to use and intuitive for the user is an important aspect of software development. Developers may need to consider factors such as layout, navigation, and accessibility to ensure that the software is user-friendly. 3. Business strategy: Developers may need to consider the overall business strategy of the company they work for, and how their work contributes to achieving that strategy. This may involve working with other departments, such as sales or marketing, to ensure that the software is aligned with the company's goals. 4. Security: Developers should consider security in their software development process to protect the software from hacking attempts, data breaches, and other security risks. 5. Cultural and linguistic diversity: Developers must consider the cultural and linguistic diversity of their users, in order to create software that is inclusive, accessible and understandable for all users. 6. Communication and collaboration: Developers often work in teams, and must be able to communicate effectively with other team members and stakeholders to ensure that the software is developed as intended. ME: Give example python code that serves some random customer in some random sector. Then explain how you would change that code to better serve the "squishy stuff" needed by the customer. chatGPT: Here's an example of Python code that serves a random customer in the retail sector by calculating the total cost of a purchase including sales tax: def calculate_total_cost(price, sales_tax): total_cost = price + (price * sales_tax) return total_cost purchase_price = 100 sales_tax_rate = 0.08 total_cost = calculate_total_cost(purchase_price, sales_tax_rate) print(total_cost) To better serve the "squishy stuff" needed by the customer, we could make the following changes: 1. Add a function to calculate discounts based on customer loyalty or promotional offers, for example by adding a function that uses customer's ID as an argument. 2. Add a function to handle different tax rates for different states or countries, for example by adding a function that uses the customer's address as an argument. 3. Add a function to handle different currencies, for example by adding a function that uses the customer's preferred currency as an argument. 4. Add a function to handle different languages, for example by adding a function that uses the customer's preferred language as an argument. Here is an example of how the code would look after making these changes: def calculate_total_cost(price, sales_tax, discount, customer_id): total_cost = price + (price * sales_tax) if customer_id in loyalty_customers: total_cost = total_cost - (total_cost * discount) return total_cost def tax_rate(customer_address): if customer_address in country_1: return 0.08 elif customer_address in country_2: return 0.09 else: return 0.07 def currency_convert(price, customer_currency): if customer_currency == "USD": return price elif customer_currency == "EUR": return price * 0.8 else: return price * 0.9 def language_change(text, customer_language): if customer_language == "en": return text elif customer_language == "fr": return translate_to_french(text) else: return translate_to_spanish(text) purchase_price = 100 customer_id = 123 customer_address = "US" customer_currency = "USD" customer_language = "en" sales_tax_rate = tax_rate(customer_address) purchase_price = currency_convert(purchase_price, customer_currency) total_cost = calculate_total_cost(purchase_price, sales_tax_rate, 0.1, customer_id) text = f"Your total cost is: {total_cost} {customer_currency}" print(language_change(text, customer_language)) This code now considers the customer's address, currency, language and ID, to provide the customer with a more personalized experience. Honestly there's a good number of people who aren't getting how revolutionary chatGPT is because of all the other inconsequential AI buzz. You really need to play with this thing in depth. It is Creative. It can create it's own specs and implement those specs like I asked it too. It won't replace you, but it's definitely the precursor to something that will.

systematical 4y ago

You don't think AI can improve in those regards? I highly disagree, its not this decade or even the next, but I wouldn't be surprised if things begin changing sometime in the 2040s. A decade I will be nearing retirement in but still working.

Mechanical9 4y ago

The threat isn't just from AI, unfortunately, it's from an entire class of powerful people willing to throw their money behind AI instead of behind customer needs, business priorities, and human values.

sublinear 4y ago
And who will prompt the AI for these powerful people?
- tluyben2 4y ago
  The few people that do the same thing now writing code from client specs or who explain and cut up client specs to their team of programmers. Not many people are good at that, and that won’t be AI for a while yet.

HardlyCurious 4y ago

They are just trying to hire less programmers, because programmers are expensive. They will have even more business / system analysts than before. And they will still have to have programmers to piece stuff together and debug systems. They just think if they could have less programmers they would save money.

zdragnar 4y ago
There's a reason the world doesn't run on low and no-code platforms. This is worse, because it still takes a programmer to verify and apply changes.
- bathtub365 4y ago
  A shocking amount of the world runs on Microsoft Excel already.

cmrdporcupine 4y ago

Indeed. I yearn for a time when I just got to pump out code. Actually writing code in quantity hasn't been a part of my job for years. Figuring out what to do is more of the job than how. I have no doubt that machines can write a lot of the boilerplate code going forward. But that's just the evolution of tools. Actually building systems; composing them and keeping them running... this is a whole other art.

fckgnad 4y ago

chatGPT is not a threat. ChatGPT is an omen for the threat that currently exists in the future. A lot of people haven't really played with chatGPT in depth. This thing is next level. It's not just spitting out generic things, there is genuine understanding here and genuine creativity. Here's a snippet from a chatGPT conversation I had based on your post: ME: Give more examples of squishy stuff that software developers need to handle. chatGPT: 1. Ethical considerations: As technology advances, software developers may need to consider ethical implications of the products they create. For example, a developer working on a facial recognition system may need to consider issues of privacy and bias. 2. User experience (UX) design: Creating a software that is easy to use and intuitive for the user is an important aspect of software development. Developers may need to consider factors such as layout, navigation, and accessibility to ensure that the software is user-friendly. 3. Business strategy: Developers may need to consider the overall business strategy of the company they work for, and how their work contributes to achieving that strategy. This may involve working with other departments, such as sales or marketing, to ensure that the software is aligned with the company's goals. 4. Security: Developers should consider security in their software development process to protect the software from hacking attempts, data breaches, and other security risks. 5. Cultural and linguistic diversity: Developers must consider the cultural and linguistic diversity of their users, in order to create software that is inclusive, accessible and understandable for all users. 6. Communication and collaboration: Developers often work in teams, and must be able to communicate effectively with other team members and stakeholders to ensure that the software is developed as intended. ME: Give example python code that serves some random customer in some random sector. Then explain how you would change that code to better serve the "squishy stuff" needed by the customer. chatGPT: Here's an example of Python code that serves a random customer in the retail sector by calculating the total cost of a purchase including sales tax: def calculate_total_cost(price, sales_tax): total_cost = price + (price * sales_tax) return total_cost purchase_price = 100 sales_tax_rate = 0.08 total_cost = calculate_total_cost(purchase_price, sales_tax_rate) print(total_cost) To better serve the "squishy stuff" needed by the customer, we could make the following changes: 1. Add a function to calculate discounts based on customer loyalty or promotional offers, for example by adding a function that uses customer's ID as an argument. 2. Add a function to handle different tax rates for different states or countries, for example by adding a function that uses the customer's address as an argument. 3. Add a function to handle different currencies, for example by adding a function that uses the customer's preferred currency as an argument. 4. Add a function to handle different languages, for example by adding a function that uses the customer's preferred language as an argument. Here is an example of how the code would look after making these changes: def calculate_total_cost(price, sales_tax, discount, customer_id): total_cost = price + (price * sales_tax) if customer_id in loyalty_customers: total_cost = total_cost - (total_cost * discount) return total_cost def tax_rate(customer_address): if customer_address in country_1: return 0.08 elif customer_address in country_2: return 0.09 else: return 0.07 def currency_convert(price, customer_currency): if customer_currency == "USD": return price elif customer_currency == "EUR": return price * 0.8 else: return price * 0.9 def language_change(text, customer_language): if customer_language == "en": return text elif customer_language == "fr": return translate_to_french(text) else: return translate_to_spanish(text) purchase_price = 100 customer_id = 123 customer_address = "US" customer_currency = "USD" customer_language = "en" sales_tax_rate = tax_rate(customer_address) purchase_price = currency_convert(purchase_price, customer_currency) total_cost = calculate_total_cost(purchase_price, sales_tax_rate, 0.1, customer_id) text = f"Your total cost is: {total_cost} {customer_currency}" print(language_change(text, customer_language)) This code now considers the customer's address, currency, language and ID, to provide the customer with a more personalized experience. Honestly there's a good number of people who aren't getting how revolutionary chatGPT is because of all the other inconsequential AI buzz. You really need to play with this thing in depth. It is Creative. It can create it's own specs and implement those specs like I asked it too. It won't replace you, but it's definitely the precursor to something that will.