Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What will be left for us to work on?

normaltech.ai

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 291 posts

Re: What will be left for us to work on?

#191

Post by mlrtime »

lelele wrote: post #163
CalRobert wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they can try it out and see if it does what they want.

Sure, but how confident can they be that it doesn't also do things they don't want? Tests can't be exhaustive, whereas even a mediocre developer is likely to possess enough background knowledge to notice risks that a non-developer would not think to test. Some people keep forgetting that we haven't reached AGI yet. These tools can still make serious and sometimes obvious mistakes. Not long ago, vibe-coded software co…

The un-hidden secret is that QA and real testing doesn't exist much anymore. People aren't surprised when things break, they just want it fixed quickly, and AI can do that.

Re: What will be left for us to work on?

#193

Post by andeee23 »

thisisit wrote: post #158
Metricon wrote: post #8

I have been writing software for over 40 years and have had a long time interest in and some work in AI over that time. I wouldn’t say this gives me any more prognosticating power about how all of this is ultimately going to go, but I believe we're soon nearing an area of plateauing; whether that's because the science itself is plateauing or the intervention of governments is going to force plateau it. So if things c…

Current discussions is like deja vu. One time there was hype around of no code/low code development using PowerApps, Zapier etc. The sell was - Creating your apps was easier than before. You don't need to know any programming language. You don't need IT. You have a GUI and just drag and drop and visual your apps. Just fill the fields and voila your app is ready. The criticism of the approach was that low codes apps m…

i don't think it's the same exact conversation. with low code tools you still need to poke around, figure out what you want, what to do, etc.

with the latest agents, you can even be vague and they'll probably do an ok job if it's not something super complicated. some models are also pretty good at stopping to let you know about stuff you haven't thought about and ask for clarification.

so you can outsource thinking now, not just the doing part.

Re: What will be left for us to work on?

#197

Post by jeffhuys »

RandomLensman wrote: post #133
jeffhuys wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So when you say stuff like“ We will never automate all work” generally you’d follow that up with an argument as to why you think that. It’s not fact, YOU think this to be the case. Back it up!

In the extreme, could just agree not to use technology in some areas (which isn't something unheard of). Human agency is real and powerful - unless humans want to automate all work, it won't happen.

True, and that’s a good argument. It does shine a light on that we need to define what “work” means to all participants of discussion; is painting work? Is elder care work? Is making a nice sandwich for yourself work?

Re: What will be left for us to work on?

#199

Post by not-a-llm »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #182
not-a-llm wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all game stores are flooded with AI slop. good luck competing

Indy games markets have been flooded with human slop since long before AI was a thing, the marketing playbook hasn't changed at all, if you just fire games into the void you never had a shot.

it took 1 month to make a human slop, now it takes 1 day

Re: What will be left for us to work on?

#200

Post by WillAdams »

pilgrim0 wrote: post #118
WillAdams wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe? But it's at my day job, and it's because I was able to write a prompt which automates having Copilot review uploaded scanned PDFs of invoices with checks (and the bank line obscured with a pen, so no PII) and then write a batch file which renames the files per a file-naming convention, removing the need to open them in batches of 50, find the Invoice ID, re-save using that filename, then quit and re-launch Ado…

Extracting structured data from PDFs is something people have been doing forever, way before LLMs, there are state of the art OCR tools out there you can use as a lib, it’s hardly something that justify using a LLM

The problem is, it's not very well structured.

The position of (for instance) the check # on a physical check varies quite widely, as can date position and format, and a fair number of them are still written by hand.

On top of that, I'm scanning thousands of these each year, and the invoice underneath the check ranges from the gamut of: "pristine copy just re-printed 'cause the customer didn't include one" through "bad inkjet photocopy of a photograph taken w/ a potato phone and then printed" and includes variations such as "customer included half-a-dozen invoices to be paid w/ one check, and if arranging them and the check _just so_ all will fit in the document camera window, saving a trip to the sheet feeder scanner"

A co-worker actually worked on this for a different program, one where actually sending in paperwork in good condition was expected and customary, but his system had a reject/failure rate of ~10% --- that would be almost 1,000 invoices each year for the program I am handling.

Post reply on HN