[pama]

> How do tests account for cases where I'm looking at a 100 line function that could have easily been written in 20 lines with just as much, if not more, clarity?

If the function is fast to evaluate and you have thorough coverage by tests, you couod iterate on an LLMs that aims to compress it down to a simpler / shorter version that behaves identical to the original function. Of course brevity for the sake of brevity can lead to less code that is not always more clear or simpler to understand than the original —LLMs are very good at mimicing code style, so show them a lot of your own code and ask them to mimic it and you may be surprized.

[fullstackchris]

Finally found a comment down here that I like. I'm also with the notion of tests and also iterating until you get to a solution you like. I also don't see anything particularly "terrifying" that many other comments suggest.

At the end of the day, we're engineers that write complex symbols on a 2d canvas, for something that is (ultimately, even if the code being written is machine to machine or something) used for some human purpose.

Now, if those complex symbols are readable, fully covered in tests, and meets requirements / specifications, I don't see why I should care if a human, an AI, or a monkey generated those symbols. If it meets the spec, it meets the spec.

Seems like most people in these threads are making arguments against others who are describing usage of these tools in a grossly incorrect manner from the get go.

I've said it before in other AI threads that I think (at least half?) of the noise and disagreement around AI generated code is like a bunch of people trying to use a hammer when they needed a screwdriver and then complaining that the hammer didnt work like a screwdriver!!! I just don't get it. When you're dealing with complex systems, i.e, reality, these tools (or any tool for that matter) will never work like a magic wand.

[nprateem]

I'm sure people who are "terrified" either haven't really tried AI or are so attached to their intellect their egos won't allow them to admit that there's little value now in a lot of the stuff they've memorised over the last few years.

I think this egoic threat is the biggest influence on this kind of thinking tbh.

[scubbo]

> a bunch of people trying to use a hammer when they needed a screwdriver and then complaining that the hammer didnt work like a screwdriver

When it's being sold as a screwdriver, that's hardly their fault.

[fullstackchris]

I'll give you that! Too much of this stuff is sold as the "magic wand" solution... I guess marketing for many products has been like that for a long time...