[retrac98]

At this point, when people say this I just assume they’ve not used the latest models or haven’t invested time in learning how to use these tools properly.

There’s slop out there, yes, but in the hands of an engineer who cares to use tools well, LLMs allow you to move much more quickly and increase the quality of your output dramatically.

[mgaunard]

Good software isn't about quantity but quality of the code.

AI cannot produce better quality code than someone who is actually qualified in the problem domain.

What I've seen AI be very good at is creating a lot of legacy code very quickly, which itself needs extensive use of AI just to maintain it.

A decent approach to move quickly for PoC or prototypes, or to enable product managers to build things without a team. But obviously not something you can build a real company on.

[zo1]

Have you been in the same industry as the rest of us? 90% of all developers out there in the wild create "legacy code very quickly" anyways, they too create "slop" before we coined the term "AI slop". This mythical "someone who is actually qualified in the problem domain" you mention is maybe 5% of the entire software development ecosystem. If you work with only those developers, you're extremely privileged and lucky, but also in a very isolated bubble.

[mgaunard]

If you work on meaningful tech projects, where tech is a real driver to the businesses and there are genuine challenges to overcome, then you can't afford slop.

I say that, but then it's true I have seen businesses be successful despite low quality of software. It turned out that for those businesses, the value wasn't that much driven by tech after all.