Our senior eng team has found that gen AI tools like GPT and Claude haven't significantly reduced the time required to develop features in our system. We're having open/good faith talks with product and exec teams about the reasons behind this and would love insights on how to effectively explain the limitations and nuances of using gen AI in engineering.
Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev
#2Because it can't. It can beat Stack Overflow, but that's because Stack Overflow sucks and hasn't had a serious competitor.
If somebody else seems to be getting a 10x-speed up they got lucky for a simple problem, are lying (want to make it big as an AI influencer) or are delusional.
Could some product come out next year that's better? Maybe. Right now it's not a productive conversation to have to look for some "nuance" which will get you to 10x.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev
#3I would look at the claim that it would 10x feature dev. Where did that claim come from? Afaik, OpenAI and Anthropic don't make that claim.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev
#4I would look at why you're outsourcing this thinking to HN instead of putting together data and an understanding of your own environment.
Or just ask the LLM's to write it for you.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev
#5you would be wise to in fact do the exact opposite. claim it does more than 10x. ask to spearhead the AI transformation of your company. promise huge cost savings. make your bag. and who knows, maybe you'll actually deliver on those promises as a side effect. and what if not? remember, the senior eng team is there as a convenient scapegoat ...
Re: Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev
#6Biggest cause is ineffective reasoning in a large context in my experience (more than 350 lines).
Im my experience, ChatGPT breaks down when it needs to consider more than 350 lines and its performance is sloppy before that.
To get solid performance out of it, I essentially need to specify the important areas and changes as well as the desired approach.
That being said, I’ve found it has cut my development time for most features by at least half, even in large codebase so I would be curious to know how you are approaching it currently.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev
#7I would look at the claim that it would 10x feature dev. Where did that claim come from? Afaik, OpenAI and Anthropic don't make that claim.
Asking where it came from will at least provide an assessment of the actual openness and good faith of the discussion.
Because willingness to question one’s assumptions is good faith’s hallmark.
Which also means the OP should not be dogmatic that AI cannot speed features up 10x.
In any case changes to process don’t come for free. Faster features of the same quality may mean faster testing, faster communication with customers, faster analysis, faster marketing updates, etc.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev
#8Why ask HN? Have you actually tried using the tech? Then you should have the answers. There are lots of different types of software development and in some areas gen AI will be extremely useful, but a net negative in others. Only you can answer the questions about your environment.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev
#9Increasing the speed at which you throw shit at a wall does not change the fact that you are throwing shit at a wall.
Re: Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev
#10Do you really need to explain it? Why are other teams picking your tools?