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Advent of Code 2023's new AI/LLM Policy

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Re: Advent of Code 2023's new AI/LLM Policy

#21

Post by Art9681 »

Seems like they need to adapt the level of difficulty to the new world of developer tooling. An AI may be able to write a starter template and used wisely can move the project forward, but it still requires knowledge and expertize to build a system of systems even with the AI.

This is an opportunity to change our expectations of developer potential. Up the stakes and innovation will soon follow.

Edit: This is also an oportunity for someone to swoop in and make the AI version of this competition with exciting and complex challenges, and make Advent of Code irrelevant by next year.

Re: Advent of Code 2023's new AI/LLM Policy

#22

Post by lsy »

Maybe I'm a dinosaur but I'm utterly mystified by folks who are interested in making the leaderboard or even solving AoC puzzles with AI assistance. To me it feels like going to a 5k charity run, taking a motorcycle to the finish line, and parading your gold medal around. Like, who are you impressing? And are you even proud of yourself?

I understand the appeal of using the best and fastest means when there are real-world stakes — taking a motorcycle is better than running for many transport scenarios. But the whole point of this is to have fun! Is it fun to hit over and over?

Re: Advent of Code 2023's new AI/LLM Policy

#23

Post by frankfrank13 »

I love Advent of Code. Genuinely the most fun I've had coding since school. I like this policy, although its impossible to enforce, which is great since Advent of Code is like, purely a hobby? But surely, this years leaderboards will still be crushed by AI-tool-assisted-speedrunners. But that won't take away how fun it is for me to do it.

Re: Advent of Code 2023's new AI/LLM Policy

#24

Post by frankfrank13 »

lsy wrote: post #22

Maybe I'm a dinosaur but I'm utterly mystified by folks who are interested in making the leaderboard or even solving AoC puzzles with AI assistance. To me it feels like going to a 5k charity run, taking a motorcycle to the finish line, and parading your gold medal around. Like, who are you impressing? And are you even proud of yourself? I understand the appeal of using the best and fastest means when there are real-w…

amazing analogy

Re: Advent of Code 2023's new AI/LLM Policy

#25

Post by housecarpenter »

Lewton wrote: post #18
eddtries wrote: post #9

If LLMs are mostly working by predicting tokens from previously seen problems (am I wrong? An AI noob here!), could an LLM even tackle such weirdly written novel problems? It's hard to know because the solutions for previous AoC problems posted on Github/blogs could be the reason it's capable of solving them nowadays, but could it solve 2023 on day 1? Really keen to find out!

People we're solving AoC problems with ChatGPT (with no human interaction) last year so your questions have already been answered

I believe it only worked for the first couple of problems though (which are very simple and easy).

Re: Advent of Code 2023's new AI/LLM Policy

#26

Post by _proofs »

postalrat wrote: post #4

"(If you want to use AI to help you solve puzzles, I can't really stop you, but I feel like it's harder to get better at programming if you ask an AI to do the programming for you.)" I'd say that whatever "better at programming" is quickly evolving. AI is a tool like high level languages, IDEs, autocomplete or all the different types of code analyzers. How is ignoring a powerful tool like AI going to get you better a…

if i'm trying to practice problem solving, why would i feed my problem into something that's going to spit out -- in the best case -- suggestions depending on the completed-ness of my input, and worse case: a proposed solution.

if i'm trying to practice handwriting -- why would i use a type writer, or word processor?

i am not sure how using a machine to do the work you're trying to practice makes you better at that practice, since it's doing the.. mechanics.. for you.

as another commenter pointed out i feel there is a distinction between programmer vs. software engineer just as there is a distinction between writing and say, novelist.

i understand the notion of practicing, and getting better at an evolved workflow for producing results -- but we're practicing foundational skills, not trying to reduce everything simply to achieving results by any means necessary.

i feel that producing results without understanding is a short-sighted investment, and not exactly the point of AoC imo.

Re: Advent of Code 2023's new AI/LLM Policy

#28

Post by mistrial9 »

lsy wrote: post #22

Maybe I'm a dinosaur but I'm utterly mystified by folks who are interested in making the leaderboard or even solving AoC puzzles with AI assistance. To me it feels like going to a 5k charity run, taking a motorcycle to the finish line, and parading your gold medal around. Like, who are you impressing? And are you even proud of yourself? I understand the appeal of using the best and fastest means when there are real-w…

Lance Armstrong Foundation on the line for you...

Re: Advent of Code 2023's new AI/LLM Policy

#29

Post by [deleted] »

reedf1 wrote: post #6

I can't help but feel part of the meaning drops out of it when there are carve outs for tools. If an AI can do it instantly, it starts to feel like pointless busy work, isn't that why we become programmers in the first place? If your intent is to make it a pure human-keyboard-code challenge, then I would have thought this would be a great opportunity to make the underlying questions harder, or to find the edge cases…

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