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Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

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Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#81

Post by ethbr0 »

immortalloom wrote: post #13
shubhamjain wrote: post #7

From the video, Second looks more like a UI wrapped over a boilerplate generators that have existed for quite a while. It's a pretty powerful one, and that can be very useful in itself but how is AI involved here? If it is, was it needed in the first place? I was expecting the inputs to be more along, "give me an app to manage a restaurant", but the inputs are modules (Forgot password, billing), which are generic pie…

Great question! So all of the files are generated with either compiles or GPT-3, or if the files already exist on the repo and need to be modified, the bots use GPT-3 code edits to modify the files. $299/project/month will sound expensive if you compare it to starter kits (usually free), templates (usually Also, yea pricing is hard! It may change.

$299/month sounds pretty reasonable if it does what it says on the tin.

That's $3.6k/year.

You don't need to make up many development hours before you've paid that back.

And it seems like there's good opportunity to stratify billing via modules -- Using only the basic stuff? $. Using more advanced / larger modules? $$.

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#82

Post by dzonga »

excellent resume, and congrats on the launch.

however, i'm bearish on AI tools not cz i'm vested as a software dev / eng.

but because we can't make software that work. if humans with massive processing power compared to AI can't make software that works. AI produced software will even be worse.

right now Software from the big companies - Google, Microsoft, Apple etc is a mess. and these firms spend a lot on engineering talent.

not only is majority of software these days slow, it's also buggy as hell. and I can only think AI software will be worse worse worse.

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#83

Post by literalAardvark »

whatshisface wrote: post #55
yunwal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why are you trying to put the rest of us out of a job? Why are you using a shovel when a spoon would do? You’re in software. Surely you were aware that things can be automated.

At some point that's going to cross a threshold from things to everything, and then we'll be in trouble.

Barbarians at the gate. It's an adapt or die moment, and OP is adapting.

No one can stop this anyway. Anyone trying will simply be left behind.

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#84

Post by rkuodys »

Honestly was waiting for something like this (or at least the version I imagined it would be) In my imagination - what I'd like to have as a lead of a small dev team - basically to write AI/Bot whatever, what is the issue, and for THAT tool to fix me the issue. Coming from non-tech company, where software development is not core business, we struggle to hire _good_ developers to give them a enough _interesting_ work for them to stick around, and freelancers is too much of a hassle. So some assistance that would do 2 things: create basic features and find and fix bugs based on description of an issue. I would gladly pay 300 and more for this. From the demo though - it seems quite a bit of time to wait, but definitely looking forward for it.

Also, the way I'd like to to work (or how I imagine it should work) - I define in text what I want, how I want it, including design part n stuff, and then basically I would submit issues to the bot to fix things for me. That's the future I'm waiting for

NB. Angular is not supported at the moment, right?

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#85

Post by yunwal »

whatshisface wrote: post #55
yunwal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why are you trying to put the rest of us out of a job? Why are you using a shovel when a spoon would do? You’re in software. Surely you were aware that things can be automated.

At some point that's going to cross a threshold from things to everything, and then we'll be in trouble.

I still don't see why we'd ask "pretty please can you use spoons instead of shovels so I can keep my job?" The sensible thing is obviously for some of the savings to be diverted into a social safety net, so you can retrain as a plumber or something without losing healthcare, your home, ability to feed yourself, etc. Going back to spoons isn't gonna happen

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#86

Post by immortalloom »

rkuodys wrote: post #84

Honestly was waiting for something like this (or at least the version I imagined it would be) In my imagination - what I'd like to have as a lead of a small dev team - basically to write AI/Bot whatever, what is the issue, and for THAT tool to fix me the issue. Coming from non-tech company, where software development is not core business, we struggle to hire _good_ developers to give them a enough _interesting_ work…

Thanks! Yes I see it the same way!

Today, my bots specialize in Next.js (React). Honestly I haven't had a lot of requests for Angular, but I suspect that is because I have mostly been working with startups. My intent is to support any major UI framework that my customers ask for. I would bet that I will eventually support Angular for this reason, but it will depend on demand.

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#89

Post by realusername »

atleta wrote: post #77
immortalloom wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, it's going to be interesting to see how this all unfolds. In my opinion, the future of software development looks like this: 1) Human developer instructs A.I. bots to build large volumes of code (like Second) 2) Human developer uses A.I. code assistants in the IDE to make "low level" changes or additions I do not believe that developers or engineers will be replaced. The world needs more software, and there's no…

No/low-code not working this time either is not a surprise. All these attempts have been made several times throughout the history. Also, as Fred Brooks famously said there is no silver bullet: no/low-code promised to be a silver bullet while only removing the accidental complexities (again, Brooks' terminology). AI changes this, however. The scenario you are describing assumes that AI will get stuck, as I said. Othe…

> No/low-code not working this time either is not a surprise. All these attempts have been made several times throughout the history. Also, as Fred Brooks famously said there is no silver bullet: no/low-code promised to be a silver bullet while only removing the accidental complexities (again, Brooks' terminology).

That's basically my opinion, yeah sure this looks impressive, until you realise that it's basically recreating Wordpress with less modules.

Generating code is far from enough to replace developers, it's the earliest step, even Frontpage itself is 30 years old at this point.

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