[kossTKR]

I just went from, "not really", to most coding jobs could be gone in about 5 years after just trying it out.

It first made a basic admin interface in Html+Css i could copy paste into Codepen, then made it interactive with pure JS, then refactored it to Vue3, then refactored it into the now obscure Angular 1.4 just to test it, then back to Vue 3, then added Pinia for persistent state in the browser, and then converted the application to PHP Laravel+Livewire, and then to Python with Django+Htmx for backend

EDIT: Wow, then i had it make graph with Canvas showing a sinus wave that i could speed control via an input with the prompt "make a an application in JS and Html that shows a sinus curve that you can speed up or down via an input".

Absolutely mind boggling! It means it can create already create a simple working application and transform it between most known stacks, even older ones.

I have no idea why some people here on HN say that it doesn't understand logic when it can refactor like that?

This is honestly making me reconsider being a developer as a career choice just a little.

[willio58]

Most coding jobs will not be gone in 5 years. Remember when "automation" was going to take all the trucker's jobs in 5 years? That was about 5 years ago and I'm not seeing many automated trucks on the roads. Of course code is different and some things are being automated, Copilot and similar projects are amazing and the next iterations will likely be mind-blowing. That being said, there's a looooong tail in programming where ML-aided code just won't be the final solution for a long time. (I'm guessing more like 20-30 years from now)

I also think there will be a long time where a programmer's job turns instead into writing extremely detailed comment-like code where you define nearly every requirement of the code (down to the "this button should be padded 5px from the top right and hover states should function as such..").

Until we reach the day where a designer could feed a design into an ML alg and out pops the backend, frontend, and infra to do the job and scale perfectly without bugs.. devs will be needed.

This will follow Gates' law, which says we overestimate the impact of technology in the short-term and underestimate the effect in the long run.

[alach11]

Yep. We're going to see an explosion of development due to Jevons Paradox. As writing custom code becomes cheaper, more and more niches will open up for custom development work. Every small business will be able to afford to hire someone to make a custom application to suit their exact needs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

[readonthegoapp]

more of a Jevons question, but do you also agree that the increasing use of 'renewable' energy like solar/wind will bring about an explosion in total energy demand/use?

Then an increase in fossil fuel use due to decreasing cost?

[alach11]

Interesting question. I think reducing electricity cost (with technology improvements in solar/wind) will definitely increase total energy demand. But that will translate only in a limited capacity to decreased fossil fuel cost. Fossil fuel costs have a ceiling based on how much it costs to get them out of the ground. Prices won't be able to fall (in the long-term) below the marginal cost of production.

[Madmallard]

Yeah this is way different than "automation". I see the majority of simplified positions being consolidated as a result of this technology.

[solumunus]

> I have no idea why some people here on HN say that it doesn't understand logic when it can refactor like that?

Because it literally is not interpreting logic or using logical reasoning, it's not a matter of opinion. The people who made it wouldn't claim that, because that's not what it has been programmed to do.

It's an incredible example of machine learning, but all it's essentially doing is parsing StackOverflow answers. Everything you just said can be done novices by reading StackOverflow and copy and pasting things together. Yes, it makes that process much quicker, but there's a reason the invention of StackOverflow didn't displace programming jobs:

If you want to create complex production software and grow and maintain it long term, it's simply not enough to copy and paste from the internet.

If that's the extent of your ability then your software will turn into complete crap, riddled with technical debt, and will be almost impossible to develop or maintain it. You will be far away from the efficiency required to build a real business from that software.

If you think your job can be replaced by someone with virtually no programming experience copy and pasting things together from the internet, then yes you should be somewhat worried: get better ASAP. For me personally, that is not a threat to my job. ChatGPT is genuinely impressive and I expect even better things to be released in the coming years, but even so we're a long, long way from building complex software without the need for programmers to be involved.

The people who are extremely worried about this are probably the same people who believed Elon Musk when he said we would have fully self driving cars 2 years ago.

[riku_iki]

> I have no idea why some people here on HN say that it doesn't understand logic when it can refactor like that?

could you try to add some logical/calculation bug in the code and ask it to fix it?..

[readonthegoapp]

would love to see this as a demo video.

i'm leaning kotlin at the moment then get up to speed on android dev so i can put together a simple app i don't want to pay someone else to do for me. and i'm bored to death already. if i could have chatgpt do it for me, cool.

i don't understand how it works - i've finally signed up, logged-in, tried the 'summarize.site' chrome extension for summarizing articles, a couple test questions on the chatgtp site, but can it build me a site and deploy it for me? or is there a ton of setup?

guess i will find out.

[l3uwin]

Coding will just change, it won't go away. It will need to be directed and taught just like any other junior dev who knows the theory but has no sense of value-add or larger context.

We will always have to supervise the machines. Otherwise we wouldn't still be putting Prometheus on 'stable' systems