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that's so cool. all those grand ideas that felt so far away are right here ready to grasp and realize.
This weekend, I called my colleague and asked him to call them back and see if they’re still trying to migrate. AI definitely has changed my calculus around what I can take on.
It’s downsides, such as hallucinations and lack of reasoning (yeah) aren’t very problematic here. Once you’re familiar enough you can switch to better tools and know what to look for.
With an extra 23 months of experience under my belt since then I'm comfortable to say that the effect has stayed steady for me over time, and even increased a bit.
I wrote something similar about this effect almost two years ago: https://simonwillison.net/2023/Mar/27/ai-enhanced-developmen... "AI-enhanced development makes me more ambitious with my projects" With an extra 23 months of experience under my belt since then I'm comfortable to say that the effect has stayed steady for me over time, and even increased a bit.
Probably right at the end of your career is where this tool would be the most useful An undergrad using the hottest tech right of the bat? Cooked. It's like giving the world 128gb of ram and 64bits in 1970, we would have just maxed it out by 1972.
What if I tell you there is an undergrad that just flunked a class and is depressed and cries about it? Considers changing their major? This is pre-AI. We have a chance that undergrads will never feel that way again. Not intimidated by anything.
As a mostly LLM-skeptic I reluctantly agree this is something AI actually does well. When approaching unfamiliar territory, LLMs (1) use simple language (improvement over academia but also much professional intentionally obfuscated literature), (2) use the right abstraction (they seem good at ”zooming out” to big picture of things, and (3) you can move both laterally between topics and ”zoom in” quickly. Another way…