To write functioning code, you need to know how to write functioning code.
The biggest issue with Copilot is that, to use it well, you need to know:
- How to write functioning code.
- How to quickly review other people's code for correctness.
- How to write good comments.
- How to tweak the ordering in which you write code such that it's easier for Copilot to understand.
- How Copilot and other GANs work, in general. An awareness that Copilot is built on GPT-3, familiarity with what that implies, and so on.
And if you don't, that results in the AI seemingly not working as well, which makes it easy to make the assumption that it isn't an incredibly useful tool. It is, it just has a learning curve measured in weeks.
I believe this is why we constantly have arguments on whether or not it's helpful.
Yes, the copilot UX is extremely detrimental to reputation of AI systems for coding. I think we need some UX work to better explain possibilities and limitations and programming will never be the same
The biggest issue with Copilot is that, to use it well, you need to know:
- How to write functioning code.
- How to quickly review other people's code for correctness.
- How to write good comments.
- How to tweak the ordering in which you write code such that it's easier for Copilot to understand.
- How Copilot and other GANs work, in general. An awareness that Copilot is built on GPT-3, familiarity with what that implies, and so on.
And if you don't, that results in the AI seemingly not working as well, which makes it easy to make the assumption that it isn't an incredibly useful tool. It is, it just has a learning curve measured in weeks.
I believe this is why we constantly have arguments on whether or not it's helpful.