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Unless you can't use ChatGPT for some reason (ex: security), I think it is a totally valid way of solving problems. The interesting part is what to do when Cha
by GuB-42 3y ago
Unless you can't use ChatGPT for some reason (ex: security), I think it is a totally valid way of solving problems.
The interesting part is what to do when ChatGPT does it wrong, and if the problem is not trivial and an exact solution is not available online, it is usually wrong. Sometimes, not by much, but it takes skill to notice the problem and fix it, either manually or by asking ChatGPT for it.
Same idea as for libraries. One could argue that those using the "sort" function don't know how to write a sorting algorithm, but in real life, unless there are particularly good reasons, rewriting a "sort" function would be crazy, and probably not what you want from your employees.
If you want your candidate not to use the tools at his disposal, you may frame it as a requirement. "on this test, imagine you are working on a sensitive project, you are not allowed to upload any details to a third party service, you can search the internet for generic information, but do as if your development machine has no internet access, so no copy-pasting". Or, for libraries "on this test, imagine we absolutely want to limit dependencies on third party libraries, even if it means sometimes reinventing the wheel, so only <list of libraries> are allowed".
- sesm 3y agoRe: security - I personally never copy company code into ChatGPT prompt and just ask questions like “I have X how do I do Y” replacing any names with placeholders. Is there an environment where such usage would be considered a security issue?
- GuB-42 3y agoI don't know if it is. However, the process of anonymizing the data, but still get a useful answer and then adapting it to working code on your side takes some skills. If you can do that effectively, you are not completely clueless and probably could do well enough without ChatGPT.
- alexb_ 3y agoIt 100% is a security issue. If you think you can just trust people to "anonymize the data effectively" you are very mistaken.
- GuB-42 3y agoI think the thing GP was saying is that he asked some generic questions like "write C code to convert a latitude in degrees to a string in the DMS format". It doesn't leak any IP and there is no way to tell from that question what you are are working on except that it involves location. It can be a hiking app or a weapons system. And you are probably making Google searches or downloading libraries along these lines anyways. Whether or not it is a security concern depends on what you are working on I guess. So that's what I meant by "I don't know". It may absolutely be, or it may not be considered so, but the idea is that if you are able to do the indirect process, that is not blindly copy-pasting, you are already showing some level of skill.