4 ms·

AI ported SimCity to TypeScript in 4 days without reading the code

9 points by astlouis44 8mo ago

chrisjj 8mo ago
I've read the article and found nothing to substantiate "without reading the code". But then, I suspect the article is AI slop. Take this: > Christopher Ehrlich just did something that would have taken a team of engineers months. He pointed OpenAI’s 5.3-codex at the entire SimCity (1989) C codebase and let it run. No, that wouldn't have taken engineers months. > Four days later: the game works in the browser. So someome used a (very slow) program to translate a program. > No code reading. What?? Osmosis, then?
- astlouis44 8mo ago
  The article was written by the CEO of Ycombinator, funnily enough.
  - chrisjj 8mo ago
    Seriously, what makes you think that? It really looks like parrot slop to me.
- skysanctuary 8mo ago
  It's a bad title. I think he meant Christopher didn't read any of the original code himself. The AI certainly ingested it. Though, there is this part: "Ehrlich wrote a bridge that could call the original C code, then ran property-based tests asserting his TypeScript port performed identically." So, he must have had some kind of awareness of how the code worked.
  - chrisjj 8mo ago
    > I think he meant Christopher didn't read any of the original code himself. The AI certainly ingested it. Human fed code he didn't read to a program. Not really news, is it?
fwlr 8mo ago
From the post: “Think about what this means … the original SimCity ran on a Commodore 64. An empty Chrome tab takes more memory than that entire machine had. We’re not constrained by hardware anymore. We’re not even constrained by understanding what the code does … codebases will 10-100x in size because AI … endless bugs … the question is whether you’re building with it or explaining why you’re not.” Looking through the eyes of an AI champion, I see a world where the first execution of any given idea, the first product to hit the market for any given need, is guaranteed to be AI-generated - with the “10-100x size” codebase, the corresponding (and often superlinear) decrease in performance, and the attendant “endless bugs”.
- chrisjj 8mo ago
  > We’re not even constrained by understanding what the code does … Key point. We can release this game, have it breach your browser, pwn your machine and rat you to ICE.
- az09mugen 8mo ago
  This resonates so much with Wirth's law : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law
hulitu 8mo ago
> AI ported SimCity to TypeScript in 4 days without reading the code And we are expected to believe this with just a picture. Is the guy preparing for Mid-term elections and looking at ways to better lie its voters ?
- chrisjj 8mo ago
  > And we are expected to believe this with just a picture. Some people are. I doubt we are.

9 points by astlouis44 8mo ago

I've read the article and found nothing to substantiate "without reading the code". But then, I suspect the article is AI slop. Take this: > Christopher Ehrlich just did something that would have taken a team of engineers months. He pointed OpenAI’s 5.3-codex at the entire SimCity (1989) C codebase and let it run. No, that wouldn't have taken engineers months. > Four days later: the game works in the browser. So someome used a (very slow) program to translate a program. > No code reading. What?? Osmosis, then?

astlouis44 8mo ago
The article was written by the CEO of Ycombinator, funnily enough.
- chrisjj 8mo ago
  Seriously, what makes you think that? It really looks like parrot slop to me.
skysanctuary 8mo ago
It's a bad title. I think he meant Christopher didn't read any of the original code himself. The AI certainly ingested it. Though, there is this part: "Ehrlich wrote a bridge that could call the original C code, then ran property-based tests asserting his TypeScript port performed identically." So, he must have had some kind of awareness of how the code worked.
- chrisjj 8mo ago
  > I think he meant Christopher didn't read any of the original code himself. The AI certainly ingested it. Human fed code he didn't read to a program. Not really news, is it?

fwlr 8mo ago

From the post: “Think about what this means … the original SimCity ran on a Commodore 64. An empty Chrome tab takes more memory than that entire machine had. We’re not constrained by hardware anymore. We’re not even constrained by understanding what the code does … codebases will 10-100x in size because AI … endless bugs … the question is whether you’re building with it or explaining why you’re not.” Looking through the eyes of an AI champion, I see a world where the first execution of any given idea, the first product to hit the market for any given need, is guaranteed to be AI-generated - with the “10-100x size” codebase, the corresponding (and often superlinear) decrease in performance, and the attendant “endless bugs”.

chrisjj 8mo ago
> We’re not even constrained by understanding what the code does … Key point. We can release this game, have it breach your browser, pwn your machine and rat you to ICE.
az09mugen 8mo ago
This resonates so much with Wirth's law : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law

hulitu 8mo ago

> AI ported SimCity to TypeScript in 4 days without reading the code And we are expected to believe this with just a picture. Is the guy preparing for Mid-term elections and looking at ways to better lie its voters ?

chrisjj 8mo ago
> And we are expected to believe this with just a picture. Some people are. I doubt we are.