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I could not disagree more. Having something generate code which is 90-100% correct is extremely valuable. E.g. creating a new page in an app. Feed an LLM the

I could not disagree more. Having something generate code which is 90-100% correct is extremely valuable. E.g. creating a new page in an app. Feed an LLM the design, the language/framework/component library you're using, and get a page which is 90% of the way there. Some tweaks and you're good. Far, far quicker than going by hand, and often better quality code than a junior developer. Now I would never deploy that code without reading it, understanding it, and testing it, but I would always do that anyway. GPT4 is close enough to a good software engineer, that to resist is it to disadvantage your business. Now if you're coding for pleasure and the fun of creation and creativity, then ditch the LLMs, they take some of that fun away for sure. But most of the time, I'm focused on achieving business outcomes quickly. That's way more productive with a modern LLM

bigstrat2003 3y ago
I strongly disagree. Having something which is 90% reliable doesn't save me any effort over just doing it myself. If I have to spend the time to check everything the tool generates (which I do, because LLMs are unreliable) then I may as well have written it myself to start with. I firmly believe that the worst kind of help is unreliable help. If your help never does its job, then you know you have to do everything yourself. If your help always does its job, you know you can trust it. If your help only sometimes does its job, you get the worst deal of all because you never know what you'll get and have to check every single time.
- willsmith72 3y ago
  > If I have to spend the time to check everything the tool generates (which I do, because LLMs are unreliable) then I may as well have written it myself to start with. Do you feel the same way about a PR from a coworker?
  - diputsmonro 3y ago
    Depends on the coworker. I would say that I trust ChatGPT code much less than the average coworker, because coworkers usually don't do something like use imaginary variables or check-in code that doesn't compile.
- simonw 3y ago
  I have nearly 12 months of personal experience now that having LLMs produce code for me - even when I only use ~20% of the code they generate - is still a huge personal productivity boost. Unreliable help is still useful if you know that it's unreliable - you learn to keep a critical eye on what it's doing and correct when necessary. Still saves a ton of time, and I'm not guessing that, I'm saying that from my own experience.

bigstrat2003 3y ago

I strongly disagree. Having something which is 90% reliable doesn't save me any effort over just doing it myself. If I have to spend the time to check everything the tool generates (which I do, because LLMs are unreliable) then I may as well have written it myself to start with. I firmly believe that the worst kind of help is unreliable help. If your help never does its job, then you know you have to do everything yourself. If your help always does its job, you know you can trust it. If your help only sometimes does its job, you get the worst deal of all because you never know what you'll get and have to check every single time.

willsmith72 3y ago
> If I have to spend the time to check everything the tool generates (which I do, because LLMs are unreliable) then I may as well have written it myself to start with. Do you feel the same way about a PR from a coworker?
- diputsmonro 3y ago
  Depends on the coworker. I would say that I trust ChatGPT code much less than the average coworker, because coworkers usually don't do something like use imaginary variables or check-in code that doesn't compile.
simonw 3y ago
I have nearly 12 months of personal experience now that having LLMs produce code for me - even when I only use ~20% of the code they generate - is still a huge personal productivity boost. Unreliable help is still useful if you know that it's unreliable - you learn to keep a critical eye on what it's doing and correct when necessary. Still saves a ton of time, and I'm not guessing that, I'm saying that from my own experience.