Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 23 posts

Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?

#1

Post by tablatom »

I'm not so worried that AI will become so good at coding that I'll be out of a job. It's not clear it's going to happen any time soon, and if it does, the implications for all sorts of jobs are so vast it's a totally different world.

But there's a different concern, that the era of millions apps might be coming to an end, and with it the viability of many of us freelancers and small software companies. Instead we will have a small number of incredibly capable and malleable platforms.

And it doesn't have to get all the way to that endgame for the app I work on to become redundant.

Re: Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?

#3

Post by mdp2021 »

chewz wrote: post #2

I don't... First I am writing code for my own pleasure. I am doing it because I like putting my thoughts in this form... Second AI will first eliminate derivative work, script kiddies, sweatshops etc. I won't be missing them.

> derivative work, script kiddies

I am not sure why or in which way you are saying that: I'd say that kind of activity will be boosted.

Re: Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?

#4

Post by rainytuesday »

I saw a podcaster say "3 of my app ideas are now obsolete". I had a half-way decent travel app idea that was made immediately obsolete. Not only apps, but what about extensions -- like VSTO (visual studio tools for office) -- you add GPT to MS Office and we don't need people programming extensions and add-ons.

Re: Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?

#5

Post by mdp2021 »

So you mean: "non-AI /aided/ project", i.e. using some algorithmic (or meta-algorithmic) writer to output drafts of the code.

There will be more competition, which means both more accessibility and more bad quality.

On your side, you may have some aid to be more productive - /may/. The projects you are working on can be "redundant" only in terms of "becoming part of a number of other spawning projects doing similar things, owing to new global levels of accessibility, and competing with a lot of noise, owing to new global levels of bad quality outputs".

Re: Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?

#7

Post by tablatom »

mdp2021 wrote: post #5

So you mean: "non-AI /aided/ project", i.e. using some algorithmic (or meta-algorithmic) writer to output drafts of the code. There will be more competition, which means both more accessibility and more bad quality. On your side, you may have some aid to be more productive - /may/. The projects you are working on can be "redundant" only in terms of "becoming part of a number of other spawning projects doing similar t…

> So you mean: "non-AI /aided/ project", i.e. using some algorithmic (or meta-algorithmic) writer to output drafts of the code.

No, I meant apps that don't use deep learning, LLMs etc internally.

Re: Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?

#8

Post by chewz »

mdp2021 wrote: post #3
chewz wrote: post #2

I don't... First I am writing code for my own pleasure. I am doing it because I like putting my thoughts in this form... Second AI will first eliminate derivative work, script kiddies, sweatshops etc. I won't be missing them.

> derivative work, script kiddies I am not sure why or in which way you are saying that: I'd say that kind of activity will be boosted.

> that kind of activity will be boosted

but there would less human programmers behind it...

Re: Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?

#9

Post by akasakahakada »

GPT-4 still suck at scientific programming where you have to invent every wheel from scratch. It will be fine if you consider generic unoptimized code productive.

Maybe all we need is to finetune a LLM for code optimization. But first you need a large enough codebase handcrafted by phds. But again not many phd are even qualified for performant code.

Re: Ask HN: Are you worried your non-AI project might soon be obsolete?

#10

Post by mdp2021 »

tablatom wrote: post #7
mdp2021 wrote: post #5

So you mean: "non-AI /aided/ project", i.e. using some algorithmic (or meta-algorithmic) writer to output drafts of the code. There will be more competition, which means both more accessibility and more bad quality. On your side, you may have some aid to be more productive - /may/. The projects you are working on can be "redundant" only in terms of "becoming part of a number of other spawning projects doing similar t…

> So you mean: "non-AI /aided/ project", i.e. using some algorithmic (or meta-algorithmic) writer to output drafts of the code. No, I meant apps that don't use deep learning, LLMs etc internally.

It makes no sense: it depends on the product, really. Prof. Patrick Winston used to say, ten years ago: "Machine Learning does what we do deterministically, but badly". Now, scale and new techniques at this stage have enabled ML to achieve amazing outputs, in areas where we could not get similar results deterministically. That does not mean that it should be used for everything. You are not supposed to use hammers instead of screwdrivers just because hammers become fashionable.

You should probably clarify your concern.

Post reply on HN