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> Another way to look at it: imagine that a manager looks at ChatGPT and says, "At last, I can fire all the programmers. Fuck those guys." They set out to build
by WalterSear 4y ago
> Another way to look at it: imagine that a manager looks at ChatGPT and says, "At last, I can fire all the programmers. Fuck those guys." They set out to build an app. How long do you think it will take before they are forced to admit defeat and hire somebody who can read and edit the code?
How is this different from "At last, I can fire all [those senior programmers and hire junior ones, and keep a team lead around, to keep them on track]. Fuck those guys."?
- wpietri 4y agoMaybe I'm not getting the point of your question. It's different in that junior programmers are still people, capable of much more than LLMs are. But yes, it's the same shortsighted executive intent.
- WalterSear 4y agoMy point is that the direction and management that you outline is as relevant to GPT as it is to a team of (sufficiently) junior developers. And, given that people find utility in Github copilot, I'm not convinced that the difference between GPT and a junior developer is qualitative rather than quantitative. Regardless of whether LLMs are demonstrating intelligence or creativity, they are already writing productive code: they aren't a hallucination.
- wpietri 4y agoIf you'd like to claim that an LLM plus a manager can produce an app just as well as a junior developer, I look forward to your demonstration of that. but even if it's true, I think it's a case I've covered in the paragraph after the one you quote.