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I'd state it more as, you don't have to reinvent to foundations to solve a new problem. If your problem is writing a link list, you still have to understand li

I'd state it more as, you don't have to reinvent to foundations to solve a new problem. If your problem is writing a link list, you still have to understand linked lists. If your problem just happens to be solved by linked lists, you can rely on a library. Re point 5. If debugging is twice as hard as writing code. How long before AI becomes half as intelligent as the average programmer making said programs undebuggable by the average programmer? Is it a good thing to have black boxes writing black boxes?

owl57 4y ago
> How long before AI becomes half as intelligent as the average programmer making said programs undebuggable by the average programmer? It doesn't work this way. A programmer with a bit of experience knows to curb the desire for cleverness and write code they — and their teammates, probably having comparable intelligence and even less knowledge about specific code — can debug. Unless they are on a coffee trip and hacking on a cool weekend project, of course. Now that's another question, what in the hell will AI's weekend projects be.
- benj111 4y ago
  >A programmer with a bit of experience knows to curb the desire for cleverness Are you suggesting AI will know to curb it's cleverness so that mere humans can understand it???
  - owl57 4y ago
    Setting aside all that debate about future AI agency and focusing on currently known mode of operation, why not. I haven't tested, but GPT-4 may already know enough to act on "this part of my/your code is too clever, please rewrite it simpler" and "please add this feature to that program, and don't be too clever".
    - scarface74 4y ago
      GPT3 could do that.
    - benj111 4y ago
      You're suggesting that "too clever" is a 'known unknown'. If it's an unknown unknown how can you spot the too clever thing to request that it's simplified? Edit: further, that assumes an AIs definition of simple matches that of a human programmer. If there's anything we've learnt recently, AI doesn't think like humans.

owl57 4y ago

> How long before AI becomes half as intelligent as the average programmer making said programs undebuggable by the average programmer? It doesn't work this way. A programmer with a bit of experience knows to curb the desire for cleverness and write code they — and their teammates, probably having comparable intelligence and even less knowledge about specific code — can debug. Unless they are on a coffee trip and hacking on a cool weekend project, of course. Now that's another question, what in the hell will AI's weekend projects be.

benj111 4y ago
>A programmer with a bit of experience knows to curb the desire for cleverness Are you suggesting AI will know to curb it's cleverness so that mere humans can understand it???
- owl57 4y ago
  Setting aside all that debate about future AI agency and focusing on currently known mode of operation, why not. I haven't tested, but GPT-4 may already know enough to act on "this part of my/your code is too clever, please rewrite it simpler" and "please add this feature to that program, and don't be too clever".
  - scarface74 4y ago
    GPT3 could do that.
  - benj111 4y ago
    You're suggesting that "too clever" is a 'known unknown'. If it's an unknown unknown how can you spot the too clever thing to request that it's simplified? Edit: further, that assumes an AIs definition of simple matches that of a human programmer. If there's anything we've learnt recently, AI doesn't think like humans.