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-> GitHub's Copilot lies about its documentation. Why would I trust it with my code This is the biggest misconception people have about AI. You shouldn't trust

by siva7 2y ago

-> GitHub's Copilot lies about its documentation. Why would I trust it with my code This is the biggest misconception people have about AI. You shouldn't trust a Copilot by default, but more often than not it will be very handy if you know what you do.

mangamadaiyan 2y ago
If you knew what to do, why would you consult a Copilot in the first place? It's not like GH tells you to use Copilot exclusively for writing boilerplate code. What the OP tried to do was a legitimate use case, wasn't it?
- siva7 2y ago
  -> If you knew what to do, why would you consult a Copilot in the first place? Because i don't know what i do but have enough experience to know if the Copilot knows what it's doing.
  - mangamadaiyan 2y ago
    An example would help me understand this better, if it's not too much to ask :)
    - Mashimo 2y ago
      You can use it as a "better" rubberduck and bounce ideas back and forth. Just with like a coworker, wich also is not 100% right. Or sometimes I use it for languages which I'm not god at, but still can read it. I'm a 10+ year Java programmer. But sometimes I want some small bash / python / powershell script. For example a powershell script to change power state profile. It spits something out in seconds, I can read it, understand it and ask for changes. With a large java project I don't use it much. But sometimes, and then I also read the code the check if it does what I want to happen. Sometimes I can just describe a problem in English, copilot will create something that I think is wrong, but it gives me an idea on how to solve it myself.
    - jawilson2 2y ago
      The coolest thing copilot or whatever did in vscode for me was generating a block of boost::regex code for c++. I started typing it, and it generated a block of 10 or so lines that would have been 10 minutes or so of deciphering boost docs, writing a simple test, failing, recompiling, etc. There is nothing worse than dealing with regexes, and it wrote the function for me, and then I wrote tests and verified it did what I needed. Then copilot was blocked at work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - dsr_ 2y ago
    ... I believe this is a most succinct definition of unearned confidence.
fleischhauf 2y ago
I think the same. it very often has some reasonable suggestion, then I mostly need to fix some minor things and it's good to go. overall it definitely helps to reduce the amount of time required to write code
stonethrowaway 2y ago
Then it shouldn’t be called a copilot because I very much would trust a copilot by default.
- Zambyte 2y ago
  You don't have to use their brand name, you can call it whatever you want. I similarly like to use the term "ClosedAI" because I find it is easier to understand than the closely named brand.

by siva7 2y ago

mangamadaiyan 2y ago

If you knew what to do, why would you consult a Copilot in the first place? It's not like GH tells you to use Copilot exclusively for writing boilerplate code. What the OP tried to do was a legitimate use case, wasn't it?

siva7 2y ago
-> If you knew what to do, why would you consult a Copilot in the first place? Because i don't know what i do but have enough experience to know if the Copilot knows what it's doing.
- mangamadaiyan 2y ago
  An example would help me understand this better, if it's not too much to ask :)
  - Mashimo 2y ago
    You can use it as a "better" rubberduck and bounce ideas back and forth. Just with like a coworker, wich also is not 100% right. Or sometimes I use it for languages which I'm not god at, but still can read it. I'm a 10+ year Java programmer. But sometimes I want some small bash / python / powershell script. For example a powershell script to change power state profile. It spits something out in seconds, I can read it, understand it and ask for changes. With a large java project I don't use it much. But sometimes, and then I also read the code the check if it does what I want to happen. Sometimes I can just describe a problem in English, copilot will create something that I think is wrong, but it gives me an idea on how to solve it myself.
  - jawilson2 2y ago
    The coolest thing copilot or whatever did in vscode for me was generating a block of boost::regex code for c++. I started typing it, and it generated a block of 10 or so lines that would have been 10 minutes or so of deciphering boost docs, writing a simple test, failing, recompiling, etc. There is nothing worse than dealing with regexes, and it wrote the function for me, and then I wrote tests and verified it did what I needed. Then copilot was blocked at work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- dsr_ 2y ago
  ... I believe this is a most succinct definition of unearned confidence.

fleischhauf 2y ago

I think the same. it very often has some reasonable suggestion, then I mostly need to fix some minor things and it's good to go. overall it definitely helps to reduce the amount of time required to write code

stonethrowaway 2y ago

Then it shouldn’t be called a copilot because I very much would trust a copilot by default.

Zambyte 2y ago
You don't have to use their brand name, you can call it whatever you want. I similarly like to use the term "ClosedAI" because I find it is easier to understand than the closely named brand.