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GPT is all you need for the back end

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Re: GPT is all you need for the back end

#121

Post by jcadam »

cmontella wrote: post #64
bccdee wrote: post #57

This sounds like a nightmare lmao. Can you imagine trying to debug a system like this? Backend work is trawling through thousands of lines of carefully thought-out code trying to figure out where the bug is—I can't fathom trying to work on a large system where the logic just makes itself up as it goes.

> a large system where the logic just makes itself up as it goes. What you describe is known as a “bureaucracy”, and indeed, it’s one of the seven levels of hell, and a primary weapon of vogons, next to poetry. That we aspire to put these in our computers, I agree, is unfathomable.

Are we the Vogons?

Re: GPT is all you need for the back end

#122

Post by misnome »

lelanthran wrote: post #114
adamsmith143 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We're far away from AGI, if we even can reach it with our current approaches, but the latest iterations of "AI" are really good at making people believe it'll be there in 2 years This is an incredibly bold prediction that isn't supported by the opinions of the majority of people in the field and certainly doesn't have any real backing other than your gut.

> This is an incredibly bold prediction that isn't supported by the opinions of the majority of people in the field Well, DUH! "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair. The people in the field who are making these promises may even believe it themselves, because their bread and butter comes from it.

I would be cautious; we all know what the majority of people in the field of "Selling NFTs" said a year ago - and they were obviously proven right.

Re: GPT is all you need for the back end

#123

Post by em-bee »

jcadam wrote: post #121
cmontella wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a large system where the logic just makes itself up as it goes. What you describe is known as a “bureaucracy”, and indeed, it’s one of the seven levels of hell, and a primary weapon of vogons, next to poetry. That we aspire to put these in our computers, I agree, is unfathomable.

Are we the Vogons?

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Re: GPT is all you need for the back end

#124

Post by flir »

bccdee wrote: post #57

This sounds like a nightmare lmao. Can you imagine trying to debug a system like this? Backend work is trawling through thousands of lines of carefully thought-out code trying to figure out where the bug is—I can't fathom trying to work on a large system where the logic just makes itself up as it goes.

Among other things I've been asking ChatGPT to implement algorithms ("can you turn this pseudocode into a Processing script?"), then iterate ("ok, now take the last two functions we wrote, put them in a class, and pass the string as an object variable"). It reminds me of a conversation with SHRDLU, but with code not blocks.

It's a powerful feeling - you get to explore a problem space, but a lot of the grunt work is done by a helpful elf. The closest example I've found in fiction is this scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaUuE582vq8) from TNG (Geordi solves a problem on the holodeck). The future of recreational programming, at least, is going to be fun.

I learned to program by the "type in the listing from the magazine, and modify it" method, and I worry that we've built our tower of abstractions way too high. LLM's might bring some of the fun and exploration back to learning to code.

Re: GPT is all you need for the back end

#125

Post by pcthrowaway »

mintplant wrote: post #55

I did something very similar, with React and Redux and ChatGPT standing in for the reducer: https://spindas.dreamwidth.org/4207.html Previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34166193 It works surprisingly well!

Now we just need to replace the user with ChatGPT also

Re: GPT is all you need for the back end

#126

Post by xwdv »

bccdee wrote: post #57

This sounds like a nightmare lmao. Can you imagine trying to debug a system like this? Backend work is trawling through thousands of lines of carefully thought-out code trying to figure out where the bug is—I can't fathom trying to work on a large system where the logic just makes itself up as it goes.

A human powered backend would be better for certain systems where the data source isn’t digitized. All you do is make an API call, then a human goes to look up the data, comes back, writes the response according to a spec, and delivers it back to you.

Re: GPT is all you need for the back end

#127

Post by flir »

spelunker wrote: post #88
Swizec wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You thought funny book magicians were just bad at their craft didn’t you? Not so! They’re software engineers from the future dealing with AI-based systems.

I would watch this

You may enjoy this and it's followups: https://aphyr.com/posts/340-reversing-the-technical-intervie...

Re: GPT is all you need for the back end

#128

Post by jahewson »

bccdee wrote: post #57

This sounds like a nightmare lmao. Can you imagine trying to debug a system like this? Backend work is trawling through thousands of lines of carefully thought-out code trying to figure out where the bug is—I can't fathom trying to work on a large system where the logic just makes itself up as it goes.

> carefully thought-out code

Let’s be honest, it’s not.

Re: GPT is all you need for the back end

#130

Post by adamsmith143 »

lelanthran wrote: post #114
adamsmith143 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We're far away from AGI, if we even can reach it with our current approaches, but the latest iterations of "AI" are really good at making people believe it'll be there in 2 years This is an incredibly bold prediction that isn't supported by the opinions of the majority of people in the field and certainly doesn't have any real backing other than your gut.

> This is an incredibly bold prediction that isn't supported by the opinions of the majority of people in the field Well, DUH! "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair. The people in the field who are making these promises may even believe it themselves, because their bread and butter comes from it.

You have an incredibly dim and pessimistic view of researchers and scientists. They could all easily double or triple their salaries by moving to standard industry but decide to work in Academia or Research Labs. These people on average predict AGI within ~30 years with more than 50% probability. Not sure how that prediction benefits their salary in any meaningful way.

If Astronomers were predicting a mass-extinction level asteroid impact for the year 2050 with 50% probability I doubt you would be so cavalier.

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