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I believe that with the arrival of ChatGPT and similar tools, writing code in C will become as easy as in any other language. The AI tools know how to generate

I believe that with the arrival of ChatGPT and similar tools, writing code in C will become as easy as in any other language. The AI tools know how to generate good C code, and C is fast by itself. I believe we'll see a lot more code written in C now that we have new tools to analyze C code.

skitter 3y ago
> The AI tools know how to generate good C code Are you sure about that? ChatGPT doesn't understand C. It wouldn't even have enough context to reason about UB even if it understood UB.
jen20 3y ago
> writing code in C will become as easy as in any other language. I look forward to a raft of CVEs over the next decade where ChatGPT is a root cause...
flohofwoe 3y ago
Oh jeez, please don't bring AI into the discussion. AI tools will just repeat all the bad StackOverflow advice and hilariously terrible trial-and-error C code from student assignments.
zer8k 3y ago
I have grown somewhat tired of these ChatGPT responses. It's a tool...not a panacea. C is a fantastic, albeit somewhat complicated, language. The problem is a C programmer knows the quirks and ChatGPT will dump you some code that could have undefined behavior depending on the compiler. Will ChatGPT always use restrict correctly (for example)?
- coliveira 3y ago
  Why not? You seem to underestimate the ability of AI tools to understand code. Undefined behavior is something that a good AI tool may avoid without major problems.
  - zer8k 3y ago
    The issue to me is not the generation of code. It's that the person using it is inexperienced with the given language. We will never be able to place 100% faith in AI. At least in my lifetime. Given that, I think it's a relative danger that is washed away in all the hype. A junior dev copy-pasting code from chatgpt. I couldn't imagine a more dangerous combination.
    - coliveira 3y ago
      Junior dev copy-pasting from stack overflow: this is already happening! Whatever bad thing AI tools can do, this is already reality all over the world.
      - zer8k 3y ago
        That's not even close to the same thing. Stack overflow posters don't hallucinate solutions, and in all but the most obscure questions, the selected answer will have been reviewed dozens of times over. With ChatGPT you get exactly what it gives you which must be trusted as a source of truth. That's bad.

skitter 3y ago

> The AI tools know how to generate good C code Are you sure about that? ChatGPT doesn't understand C. It wouldn't even have enough context to reason about UB even if it understood UB.

jen20 3y ago

> writing code in C will become as easy as in any other language. I look forward to a raft of CVEs over the next decade where ChatGPT is a root cause...

flohofwoe 3y ago

Oh jeez, please don't bring AI into the discussion. AI tools will just repeat all the bad StackOverflow advice and hilariously terrible trial-and-error C code from student assignments.

zer8k 3y ago

I have grown somewhat tired of these ChatGPT responses. It's a tool...not a panacea. C is a fantastic, albeit somewhat complicated, language. The problem is a C programmer knows the quirks and ChatGPT will dump you some code that could have undefined behavior depending on the compiler. Will ChatGPT always use restrict correctly (for example)?

coliveira 3y ago
Why not? You seem to underestimate the ability of AI tools to understand code. Undefined behavior is something that a good AI tool may avoid without major problems.
- zer8k 3y ago
  The issue to me is not the generation of code. It's that the person using it is inexperienced with the given language. We will never be able to place 100% faith in AI. At least in my lifetime. Given that, I think it's a relative danger that is washed away in all the hype. A junior dev copy-pasting code from chatgpt. I couldn't imagine a more dangerous combination.
  - coliveira 3y ago
    Junior dev copy-pasting from stack overflow: this is already happening! Whatever bad thing AI tools can do, this is already reality all over the world.
    - zer8k 3y ago
      That's not even close to the same thing. Stack overflow posters don't hallucinate solutions, and in all but the most obscure questions, the selected answer will have been reviewed dozens of times over. With ChatGPT you get exactly what it gives you which must be trusted as a source of truth. That's bad.