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Chrome DevTools now uses Gemini to help with JavaScript Errors in the console

developer.chrome.com

61–70 of 81 posts

Re: Chrome DevTools now uses Gemini to help with JavaScript Errors in the console

#61
> To use this feature, make sure that you:

> Are located in one of the supported regions and are at least 18 years old.

I wonder how much of the 18+ part is due to their models producing unsafe outputs (which seems unlikely considering how often they refuse to be useful), or if they're actually using it as a subtle form of anti-bot protection (I had one of my accounts suddenly marked as "potentially under 18" and I have to submit my passport to verify)

Re: Chrome DevTools now uses Gemini to help with JavaScript Errors in the console

#62
post #7

Will it untangle heavily obfuscated code?

JavaScript isn’t obfuscated. It’s ulgified and minified. Uglification is the process where function names and other items are shortened into smaller names which reduces the payload size For example MyFunction(){ Const myVar = 5 } Could become a(){const b= 5}

Not always true, see recapcha's JS for example. It embeds an interpeter and then an obfuscaed program that runs in it.

Re: Chrome DevTools now uses Gemini to help with JavaScript Errors in the console

#63
post #7

Will it untangle heavily obfuscated code?

JavaScript isn’t obfuscated. It’s ulgified and minified. Uglification is the process where function names and other items are shortened into smaller names which reduces the payload size For example MyFunction(){ Const myVar = 5 } Could become a(){const b= 5}

Another common example of this not being true is Google's closure compiler, which does non trival code transforms (inline, peephole ops, ect..)

Re: Chrome DevTools now uses Gemini to help with JavaScript Errors in the console

#66
post #40
post #19

Maybe it's just me but if I felt like my application's error messages weren't easy enough to understand I'd try to improve the messages instead of throwing all the context at an AI and hoping for the best.

DevTools can't force frameworks and libraries to output better error messages. But it can help us humans understand them better.

Pretty much all web frameworks are open source. And most web developers are more than capable to improve unfriendly errors upstream.

Re: Chrome DevTools now uses Gemini to help with JavaScript Errors in the console

#68

I can't wait for end users to submit bug reports containing Geminis interpretation instead of the actual error message.

So AI output will be posted as questions on Stack Overflow and Stack Overflow will train its AI based on those questions.

We’ve completed the loop. I’ll just sit and wait for the outcome.

Re: Chrome DevTools now uses Gemini to help with JavaScript Errors in the console

#69
post #26

> To use this feature, make sure that you: > Are located in one of the supported regions and are at least 18 years old. Seriously. For to get an explanation of a freaking JS error message. Now for a debug session you need a Google account, to agree with a legal notice, a privacy notice and be at least 18 years old and boil I don't know how many liters of water for generating a text that could be static in some docume…

Gotta keep using Firefox. The future is bleak without it.

Re: Chrome DevTools now uses Gemini to help with JavaScript Errors in the console

#70

Why does this exist? The example AI-generated explanation shown doesn't seem any more helpful than the original error. It just states the same information in a long-winded manner. Errors and warnings are already deterministic and unambiguous. Why introduce the opportunity to confuse people or just be plain wrong?

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