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Devin: AI Software Engineer

cognition-labs.com

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Re: Devin: AI Software Engineer

#181

Post by joenot443 »

OtherShrezzing wrote: post #162
parhamn wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I build a pretty popular LLM tool. I think learning when/how to use them is as big a mental hurdle as it was learning to google well or whether something is googlable or not. In the realm of coding here are a few things its really good at: - Translating code, generating cross language clients. I'll feed it a golang single file API backend and tell it to generate the typescript client for that. You can add hints like…

>- Small module completion. I write an interface of a class/struct with it's methods and some comments and tell it to fill in. A recent one I did looked something like (abbreviated): Are they considerably better than existing non-AI tools + manual coding for this? In VSCode and Visual Studio, when working with an interface in C# for example, I can click two context menus to have it generate an implementation with con…

That sounds crazy useful and I think speaks most to the maturity of C# and Microsoft's commitment to making it so ergonomic. I'm pretty curious about that feature, I'd love something similar for C++ in VS Code, but thus far I've been doing a pretty similar Copilot flow to the parent comment. It's nothing groundbreaking, but a nice little productivity boost. If I had to take that or a linter, I'd take the linter.

Totally agree on the 55% figure being hogwash.

Re: Devin: AI Software Engineer

#182

Post by CipherThrowaway »

famouswaffles wrote: post #135
CipherThrowaway wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto. I started out excited about LLMs and eager to use them everywhere, but have become steadily disillusioned as I have tried to apply them to daily tasks, and seen others try and fail in the same way. Honestly, LLMs can't even get language right. They produce generic, amateurish copy that reads like it's written by committee. GPT can't perform to the level of a middle market copywriter or content marketer. I am c…

>GPT can't perform to the level of a middle market copywriter or content marketer. I am convinced that people who think LLMs can write have simply not understood what professional writers do. GPT's rigid "robot butler" style is not "just how LLMs write". OpenAI deliberately tuned it to sound that way. Even much weaker models that aren't tuned to write in a particular way can easily pass for human writing.

This is part of the problem with the whole discourse of comparing human writers to LLMs. Superficial things like style and tone aren't the problem, but they are overwhelmingly the focus of these discussions.

It's funny to see, because developers are so sensitive about being treated like code monkeys by their non-technical colleagues. But these same devs turn around to treat other professionals as word monkeys, or pixel monkeys, or whatever else. Not realizing that they are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of someone else's profession.

Professional writers don't take prompts and shit out words. They work closely with their clients to understand the important outcomes, then work strategically towards them. The dead giveaway of LLM writing isn't the style. It's the lack of coherent intent behind the words, and low information density of the text. A professional writer works to communicate a lot with very little. LLMs work in the opposite way: you give it a prompt, then it blows it out into verbiage.

Sit down for coffee with a professional copywriter (not the SEO content marketing spammers), and see what they have to say about LLMs.

Re: Devin: AI Software Engineer

#183

Post by chpatrick »

swalsh wrote: post #166
4star3star wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of work do you have in mind?

In terms of my "off ramp"? I have a multi-part plan. Immediately, i'm working to get closer to the business. To be closer to the position of defining requirements, not implementing requirements. Secondary, i'm experimenting with ideas I hope can become a business. as a final fallback, I have a hobby woodshop in my basement, and I love making furniture.

What about when the ai defines requirements?

Re: Devin: AI Software Engineer

#184

Post by Bjorkbat »

breadsniffer01 wrote: post #151
ThalesX wrote: post #73

As a developer but also product person, I keep trying to use AI to code for me. I keep failing, because of context length, because of shit output from the model, because of lack of any kind of architecture etc etc etc. I'm probably dumb as hell, because I just can't get it to do anything remotely useful, more than helping me with leetcode. Just yesterday I tried to feed it a simple HTML page to extract a selector, I…

A lot of startups are selling the dream/hype of not ever having to learn to code. Be aware that it’s hype. Learn to code if you want to build stuff. They will be tools for those that have the knowledge needed to effectively use them.

Reminds me of the no-code / low-code hype around 2020, tons of startups advertising app-builders that used little, if any, AI. Just blocks that you dragged-and-dropped. While many of them were successful, it seems like overall they didn't really make much of a dent in industry, which I found very curious.

Like, by now you'd think it would be inevitable that we wouldn't be writing software in a text-editor or IDE. Everything else we do on a computer is more graphical rather than textual, with the exception of software development. Why is that?

Part of the reason why I'm kind of bearish on AI is because it seems like we could have replaced written code with GUI diagrams as far back as the 80s, or at the very least in the early 2000s, and it seems like something that should have obviously caught on given that would probably be much easier for the average person. Again though, curiously, we're still using text editors. Perhaps despite the popularization of AI no-code builders we'll still see that the old model of hiring someone good at writing code in a text-editor remains largely unchanged.

Makes me wonder if there's just something about the process that we overlook, and if this same something could frustrate attempts at automating the process of writing code using AIs as much as it frustrated our attempts at capturing code using graphical symbols.

Re: Devin: AI Software Engineer

#185

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

bigyikes wrote: post #42
BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but if we can redistribute the AI-generated surplus History suggests that we cannot. This is very much like saying "but if we can redistribute the wealth of all the billionaires". Like, uh huh, but that won't happen because, short of fear of murder, people winning a class war have no incentive to stop.

Millions of people being put out of work might change the political landscape quite a bit. We’re talking about a technological revolution, so I don’t think it’s too crazy to consider an economic or political revolution to go with it.

Maaaaaaybe...but...

The (first) French Revolution, the period in history to which all revolution is compared, did not distribute equality to the masses. It distributed The Terror, and then it distributed Emperor Napoleon, and then it distributed the Bourbon monarchy right back into power.

Then the (second) French Revolution changed one king for another.

Then the (third) French Revolution distributed another fucking Emperor Napoleon.

Revolutions aren't as equality-building as people want to believe.

Re: Devin: AI Software Engineer

#186

Post by dukeyukey »

throwaway632 wrote: post #174
dukeyukey wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only I lived in the Bay Area. Or California. Or North America.

Where do you live? Are there other economic opportunities there for a smart, motivated ex-programmer? Many programmers are good enough generalists to displace people in other jobs if the work dries up. Just like Teach for America college grads displace and outperform professional classroom teachers.

I'm in London, where I earn enough to rent a 2-bed 700sqft flat. Not exactly retraining for years money. But in any case, I think I'll be fine, it's others I'm worried about. I grew up in a poor rural area - I've seen what sudden unemployment does to people, even if they are smart and motivated.

Re: Devin: AI Software Engineer

#187

Post by gnarcoregrizz »

Yet again, bad time to be on the labor side of the equation, great time to be a capitalist. For us laborers, if I had to choose from a list of fields to go into, anything creative would be low on the list. 'Prompt Engineer' will be the only one left.

UBI is a pipe dream... it's not happening. The wealth and means of production won't be shared in any meaningful capacity. Wealth inequality can get a whole lot worse.

Re: Devin: AI Software Engineer

#188

Post by gowld »

shombaboor wrote: post #71
swalsh wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software is a commodity, find something more valuable to differentiate your startup.

just need to get an A list celeb like ryan reynolds involved and people will follow

You'll need an AI list celeb. A list is dead.

Re: Devin: AI Software Engineer

#189

Post by brigadier132 »

ThalesX wrote: post #73

As a developer but also product person, I keep trying to use AI to code for me. I keep failing, because of context length, because of shit output from the model, because of lack of any kind of architecture etc etc etc. I'm probably dumb as hell, because I just can't get it to do anything remotely useful, more than helping me with leetcode. Just yesterday I tried to feed it a simple HTML page to extract a selector, I…

Claude Opus is working for me. It's not perfect but it definitely handles busy work well enough that it's a net positive. Like I add some new fields to a table and ask it to update all the files that depend on the field and it works after 1 or 2 tries. There is a time saving benefit but there is also an avoiding mental fatigue benefit for busywork.

Re: Devin: AI Software Engineer

#190

Post by gerash »

we still don't have agents that can do simple things like: find a funny photo of my dog in my phone and post it as a story on instagram with 100% reliability. I would wait for that to happen first before thinking there can be an autonomous software engineer
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