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GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

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Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#121

Post by throw83288 »

anon3459 wrote: post #109
throw83288 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? Seems obvious that I missed the boat on LLMs. I don't have any ideas anyway (I have only one "idea", and it's someone elses and I have no faith that it'll get me a foothold). Robotics will be solved pretty soon by 10x reasoners if this development curve continues. Everything I can "change to" has a 2 year delta and that is a 100x capability change within the AI space right now.

Just use AI to learn what you want to pivot to and don’t be cry baby please

It's not knowledge but applications of knowledge to actually work in the field. I don't know how to meaningfully make the applications to succeed.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#122

Post by skydhash »

ALittleLight wrote: post #117
brianmcc wrote: post #113

Not my quote but: "The trillion dollar problem AI is trying to solve is wages. Your wages." Not wanting to come across all Luddite about it, but we really ought not to stumble blindly into all this. That said, I remain sceptical. The 10% of my job which is coding just isn't the difficult part.

True, but if the coding becomes trivial then you'll be replaced by a good PM who can work with an agent team.

Coding was always trivial (see code generators, snippets, templates). The issue is making all the little pieces work and adjust them as needed.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#124

Post by username223 »

gokhan wrote: post #49
threatofrain wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we actually could get to a world where programmers can be replaced, we'll also likely find that vast swathes of the population will be replaced. Then we'll need a totally new conversation on how society should look. That conversation is coming no matter what, because there will not be a global consensus to stop ML development, esp. on the war front.

As a programmer, I think it's easier to replace programmers than many other occupations. We work with generic DSLs called programming languages, which can be easily handled by AI. Most of what we produce can be easily parsed by an AI. We work in small, incremental tasks which is perfect for AI. Most of us use the same set of tools. What else? UI is similar everywhere, especially in LoB apps. What we produce is repeti…

Sure, programmers work in formal languages, but they can't make mistakes. If your marketing copy contains a few lies or your hero image has a guy with six fingers, the recipients will still infer the intended meaning (or ignore it). If your program has a subtle bug, the computer will faithfully do the wrong thing.

LLMs are great for tasks where small mistakes don't matter, and useless for ones where they do. Generating a 10,000-line Rails app where 10 of those lines are wrong is not very useful.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#125

Post by baq »

lolinder wrote: post #28
hidingOnBush wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are sleeping on codeium. I've found their AI assistant to be much better than cursor

How's their autocomplete? I'm honestly not interested in tighter integration of chatbots. What blew me away about Cursor was how much better it was at autocomplete. I honestly probably would have tried it sooner if people emphasized that strongly enough in online dialogs, but it weirdly always seems to get relegated to an afterthought compared to the flashy chatbot, which was... fine, I guess?

Because the composer is actually the bees knees, especially on larger projects where you need to reference say 5 different files with interface definitions and 3 other libraries using them.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#126

Post by tvaughan »

jacobsenscott wrote: post #95
nonethewiser wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont think making Copilot better by handling its bad ouput means replacing developers. And GitHub certainly isn’t saying the goal is to replace developers. I accept that is how you are interpreting it and I can see the argument. But Github isnt trying to get one over in their messaging. And besides I just dont agree with the idea that it takes the developer out of the loop. Whose controlling this better version of…

The goal has always been to eliminate programmers. Nobody wants to pay a bunch of desk workers six figures to make their business go brr, but they currently they have no choice. Trust me, every executive resents this to their core and they want all the programmers to go away - including github executives. 20 years ago you would hire a few expensive architects who would try and design the product in so much detail che…

Yup. Even in the 90s it was Microsoft’s plan to turn software development into just clicking buttons, e.g. Visual Studio. Just think of all of the business value the middle managers at a Fortune 1000 could produce with a bunch of cheap labor in some underdeveloped country with only three months of training (paid by them) to learn which buttons do which

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#127

Post by Almondsetat »

skydhash wrote: post #122
ALittleLight wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but if the coding becomes trivial then you'll be replaced by a good PM who can work with an agent team.

Coding was always trivial (see code generators, snippets, templates). The issue is making all the little pieces work and adjust them as needed.

And that's why software engineering =/= coding

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#128

Post by sdesol »

diggan wrote: post #38

> When we introduced GitHub Copilot back in 2021, we had a clear goal: to make developers’ lives easier with an AI pair programmer that helps them write better code. The name reflects our belief that artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t replacing the developer. Later: > GitHub Copilot’s new agent mode is capable of iterating on its own code, recognizing errors, and fixing them automatically. Is this Microsoft/GitHub ac…

> post seems to go into all different directions, which seems strange.

I asked AI to give feedback on the negative points in the article, with a focus on the human impact. I asked Gemini Flash 2, GPT-4o, Llama 3.3, and DeepSeek v3 and they had diverging thoughts in some areas, so your take seems valid.

Here is the overall summary

- *Consensus*: All LLMs agree on core risks (deskilling, code quality, workflow disruption).

- *Divergence*: Job displacement and bias concerns split opinions, with some LLMs deeming them speculative.

- *Scope*: Gemini and DeepSeek v3 extend discussion to broader AI ethics, while Groq/Llama 3.3 and GPT-4o prioritize strict article alignment.

I was actually surprised by the Gemini 2 response

---

While the article focuses on the benefits of GitHub Copilot and its new features, it's important to critically evaluate the potential downsides and unintended consequences. My initial response aimed to provide a balanced perspective by highlighting these concerns, which are relevant to the broader discussion about AI in software development.

Here is the full analysis https://beta.gitsense.com/?chat=ec90dd73-0873-43ab-9da0-c613...

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#129

Post by throw83288 »

mywittyname wrote: post #106
throw83288 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Effectively they have completely automated SWE job, pair programmer was just a marketing speak, real intention is clear. Frankly, this was obvious to me since the Copilot Workspace announcement. It's so hard not for me to not slide completely into nihilistic despair as a student right now. I chose wrong, and now there is nothing I can do. Day in and day out I'm talking about my projects and internships as if my ent…

I've been in the industry long enough to have been around for a few crashes. My outlook is: this industry has always faced threats that looked like it was going to spell the end of our careers, but we always come out the other side better than ever. I don't think LLMs are fundamentally more threatening than off shore developers were. Sure, we lost jobs during that time, but businesses realized eventually that the pro…

Your logic works for seniors, but honestly I'm unsure how it works for anybody that just wants to break in.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#130

Post by baq »

JohnnyMarcone wrote: post #52
rvz wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not hiding it anymore and are testing as to how much they can get away with total job displacement. First artists, then musicians, then writers and now programmers. Better prepare for 2030 then as I am already doing so [0]. But from this year and in the next 5 years I'd also read this very carefully [1]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42563239 [1] https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-…

Care to share how you are preparing?

Save as much money as possible and start tinkering with hardware is my approach. Not sure if the right move isn’t tinkering with water and sewage pipes at this point…
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