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Copilot stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from GitHub (2023)

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21–30 of 107 posts

Re: Copilot stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from GitHub (2023)

#21
On a slightly related note, does anyone feel copilot is not as powerful as it used to be? It's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but it feels like it often either does nothing, or generates the bare minimum.

I think one concrete thing is writing a comment about a function, then expecting that function below the comment, but instead you get more comments.

Re: Copilot stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from GitHub (2023)

#22
post #17

I have a simple question. If censorship is considered evil regarding the written word and communications between humans, why do we want to then censor LLMs differently? It is either counterintuitive or simply a false concept we should abandon. Perhaps it is more about training, similar to how children are 'monsters' and need to be socialized/tamed.

I censor myself all the time when speaking, depending on the context and who I’m speaking to. I do it because it’s typically in my best interest to do so, and because I believe that it is respectful in that moment. The things I say represent me. I don’t find it too surprising that a company might want to censor their own AI product as it represents them and their reputation.

Re: Copilot stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from GitHub (2023)

#23

On a slightly related note, does anyone feel copilot is not as powerful as it used to be? It's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but it feels like it often either does nothing, or generates the bare minimum. I think one concrete thing is writing a comment about a function, then expecting that function below the comment, but instead you get more comments.

Close the comment, write 'function' and wait a little.

Re: Copilot stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from GitHub (2023)

#24

On a slightly related note, does anyone feel copilot is not as powerful as it used to be? It's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but it feels like it often either does nothing, or generates the bare minimum. I think one concrete thing is writing a comment about a function, then expecting that function below the comment, but instead you get more comments.

Very same experience. Plus, the guardrails have just become ridicioulus.

Re: Copilot stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from GitHub (2023)

#27
post #14

I wonder if one can sneak in words into code to avoid public code to be used for training AI. Perhaps just a tiny little nazi reference.

I was reading someone the other day (it might have been on HN) saying they use this strategy to prevent candidates from using LLMs in interviews. E.g. a system design interview question about building an app to manage all your drug shipments and nuclear bombs.

Probably not that useful to prevent the use of AI, just prompt for any shipments. In a real app the contents of the packages shouldn't be hard-coded anyway. Might prevent the really stupid who can't figure that out though.

Re: Copilot stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from GitHub (2023)

#28
I’m somewhat “rude” in my code comments and was tripped up by this last month… took me a while to figure out while on that specific file autocomplete would stop working https://bsky.app/profile/giorgio.azzinna.ro/post/3lecq3v5gts...

Not to mention, there’s apparently some research saying code with swear words has higher quality, so if AI causes some decline there, we now know why it is https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/110mj6p/open_s...

Re: Copilot stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from GitHub (2023)

#29

On a slightly related note, does anyone feel copilot is not as powerful as it used to be? It's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but it feels like it often either does nothing, or generates the bare minimum. I think one concrete thing is writing a comment about a function, then expecting that function below the comment, but instead you get more comments.

Seems the trend with most LLM tech is once the users are there the model is quantized or downgraded down to the bare minimum level of usefulness either silently or through new versions that are just not better in real use.

Re: Copilot stops working on code that contains hardcoded banned words from GitHub (2023)

#30
post #17

I have a simple question. If censorship is considered evil regarding the written word and communications between humans, why do we want to then censor LLMs differently? It is either counterintuitive or simply a false concept we should abandon. Perhaps it is more about training, similar to how children are 'monsters' and need to be socialized/tamed.

> If censorship is considered evil regarding the written word and communications between humans

Oh it's certainly not by many people. It's fine with them if you are censoring what they don't like.

It took me a long time to realize the "free speech" advocates of the 60s-80s were long gone from the left.

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