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ChatGPT can automate the most basic programming tasks. It will help you find the right command line parameters or the right API calls, or help you with simple c

by gizmo 4y ago

ChatGPT can automate the most basic programming tasks. It will help you find the right command line parameters or the right API calls, or help you with simple code manipulation. But when you're doing actual programming what use is ChatGPT? I hear programmers despair about how their skills have become commoditized, but ChatGPT can't do anything I consider programming. Yes it can help write or summarize documentation. It's a useful tool. But it can't program. What am I missing here, what is it that makes ChatGPT such a game-changer for software engineers?

gymbeaux 4y ago
If you’re specific enough, it is excellent at writing not just simple stuff but complex programs. Entire programs. Usually they work, but if they don’t, it’s a matter of swapping out usually a word or two in a single line of code. It is excellent at writing code.
Workaccount2 4y ago
You're missing that in as recently as 2019 LLM's could barely form a coherent sentence.
- surgical_fire 4y ago
  ... so? That happens to every new technology. It is mostly useless until some development makes it viable or useful. Getting a time cut from 2019 to 2023 and extrapolating that now it will advance at an exponential pace every few years is as stupid as getting a time cut from 1980 to 2020 and predicting it will have a glacial pace of advancement in the future. Truth is that there were some interesting advancements in LLM research, but it's difficult to tell what will happen. Will it plateau for a while? Will it keep advancing at a fast pace? Will it have frequent minor improvements but never really get to the point of AGI (basically growing asymptotically)?
- switch007 4y ago
  So extrapoloating from that progress, it'll soon be able to do: requirement gathering, documentation, dependency management, unit tests, integration tests, configuration of infrastructure, cost management, alerting, monitoring, metrics, logging, secrets management, outage responses, discussions with stakeholders, A/B testing, security compliance etc?
  - heurist 4y ago
    Why wouldn't it? There are already tools that claim to do some of these as independent tasks.
    - switch007 4y ago
      Why would it? The onus is on the person making the claim.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
kraftman 4y ago
i think you're missing that most software dev is basic programming tasks. most people arent writing anything that novel or complex, they're churning out different versions of the same stuff with the same frameworks. the biggest hindrance to chatgpt doing that all right now is the size of the context it can handle.

by gizmo 4y ago

gymbeaux 4y ago

If you’re specific enough, it is excellent at writing not just simple stuff but complex programs. Entire programs. Usually they work, but if they don’t, it’s a matter of swapping out usually a word or two in a single line of code. It is excellent at writing code.

Workaccount2 4y ago

You're missing that in as recently as 2019 LLM's could barely form a coherent sentence.

surgical_fire 4y ago
... so? That happens to every new technology. It is mostly useless until some development makes it viable or useful. Getting a time cut from 2019 to 2023 and extrapolating that now it will advance at an exponential pace every few years is as stupid as getting a time cut from 1980 to 2020 and predicting it will have a glacial pace of advancement in the future. Truth is that there were some interesting advancements in LLM research, but it's difficult to tell what will happen. Will it plateau for a while? Will it keep advancing at a fast pace? Will it have frequent minor improvements but never really get to the point of AGI (basically growing asymptotically)?
switch007 4y ago
So extrapoloating from that progress, it'll soon be able to do: requirement gathering, documentation, dependency management, unit tests, integration tests, configuration of infrastructure, cost management, alerting, monitoring, metrics, logging, secrets management, outage responses, discussions with stakeholders, A/B testing, security compliance etc?
- heurist 4y ago
  Why wouldn't it? There are already tools that claim to do some of these as independent tasks.
  - switch007 4y ago
    Why would it? The onus is on the person making the claim.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

kraftman 4y ago

i think you're missing that most software dev is basic programming tasks. most people arent writing anything that novel or complex, they're churning out different versions of the same stuff with the same frameworks. the biggest hindrance to chatgpt doing that all right now is the size of the context it can handle.