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by S201
936 days ago
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> Unlike software, there is no machine that can do the type of woodworking you describe. A CNC? > Conversely, my own experience shows that even with context window limitations, ChatGPT is already better than 90% of working software engineers for generating small practical programs. Well if we're doing anecdotal experiences, I find ChatGPT (both with 3.5 and 4) useful for replacing quick search queries to look up documentation but for anything more complex than that and it quickly starts making up blatantly incorrect examples even for small programs making it more than useless most of the time for me at least. But you're welcome to disagree; I don't have the energy anymore to get into my 1000th internet discussion full of anecdotal evidence trying to validate the future merits of generative AI for software engineering purposes. |
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Not CNC, right?
Yeah I think it's fun to discuss. I think we're saying the same thing. I'm not saying ChatGPT could replace a professional software engineer for most things at this stage. That clearly isn't practical yet.
As you said, it does make mistakes, though it can often correct them if the context window is there. The differences in how we use it for programming tasks and what we find useful is probably related to our SWE skill levels. Yours is likely much higher than mine, as I've never been a professional SWE.
That said, for the many little automation tasks that business people often bug a real engineer for, like iterating through a CSV and hitting an API to do something, then writing a result, it's ability to write simple and useful python scripts has been amazing for me.
I believe it's getting close to the place where I could use to to prototype simple MVPs but it failed during my last attempt.