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Who needs Git when you have 1M context windows?

alexmolas.com

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Re: Who needs Git when you have 1M context windows?

#21

Post by onionisafruit »

flerchin wrote: post #6
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #2

A fun anecdote, and I assume it's tongue in cheek, although you never know these days, but is the LLM guaranteed to give you back an uncorrupted version of the file? A lossy version control system seems to me to be only marginally better than having no VCS at all.

Well, it'll give you what the tokenizer generated. This is often close enough for working software, but not exact. I notice it when asking claude for the line number of the code with specific implementation. It'll often be off by a few because of the way it tokenizes white space.

Thanks. I noticed the same thing about line numbers but I didn’t know the reason. It has made me double check I’m in the right file more than once.

Re: Who needs Git when you have 1M context windows?

#22

Post by f1shy »

the_af wrote: post #10

I cannot wrap my head around the anecdote that opens the article: > Lately I’ve heard a lot of stories of AI accidentally deleting entire codebases or wiping production databases. I simply... I cannot. Someone let a poorly understood AI connected to prod, and it ignored instructions, deleted the database, and tried to hide it. "I will never use this AI again", says this person, but I think he's not going far enough:…

99% agree, but:

>(the human) should be banned from production systems as well.

The human may have learnt the lesson... if not, I would still be banned ;)[0]

[0] I did not delete a database, but cut power to the rack running the DB

Re: Who needs Git when you have 1M context windows?

#23

Post by Aurornis »

mobeigi wrote: post #19

I'm waiting for the day someone builds a wrapper around LLM chats and uses it as a storage medium. It's already been done for GitHub, YouTube videos and Minecraft.

I suppose if you want an extremely lossy storage medium that may or may not retrieve your data, stores less than a 3.5” storage medium, and needs to be continually refreshed as you access it.

Re: Who needs Git when you have 1M context windows?

#26

Post by yggdrasil_ai »

If you sent the python file to Gemini, wouldn't it be in your database for the chat? I don't think relying on uncertain context window is even needed here!

A big goal while developing Yggdrasil was for it to act as long term documentation for scenarios like you describe!

As LLM use increases, I imagine each dev generating so much more data than before, our plans, considerations, knowledge have almost been moved partially into the LLM's we use!

You can check out my project on git, still in early and active development - https://github.com/zayr0-9/Yggdrasil

Re: Who needs Git when you have 1M context windows?

#27

Post by onionisafruit »

f1shy wrote: post #17
dotancohen wrote: post #4

Don't take this as career advice! This is an amusing anecdote. But the only lesson to be learned is to commit early, commit often.

And in general maybe have a better working methodic, or however you name it. Sounds like messing around to me.

I like to mess around. Some of my best work comes out of messing around. The trick is making sure you mess around in a way that lets you easily hold onto whatever improvements you make. For me that means committing obsessively.

Re: Who needs Git when you have 1M context windows?

#28

Post by the_af »

f1shy wrote: post #22
the_af wrote: post #10

I cannot wrap my head around the anecdote that opens the article: > Lately I’ve heard a lot of stories of AI accidentally deleting entire codebases or wiping production databases. I simply... I cannot. Someone let a poorly understood AI connected to prod, and it ignored instructions, deleted the database, and tried to hide it. "I will never use this AI again", says this person, but I think he's not going far enough:…

99% agree, but: >(the human) should be banned from production systems as well. The human may have learnt the lesson... if not, I would still be banned ;)[0] [0] I did not delete a database, but cut power to the rack running the DB

I don't think it's the same. I'm not arguing you must not make mistakes, because all of us do.

I mean: if you're a senior, don't connect a poorly understood automated tool to production, give it the means to destroy production, and (knowing they are prone to hallucinations) then tell it "but please don't do it unless I tell you to". As a fun thought experiment, imagine this was Skynet: "please don't start nuclear war with Russia. We have a simulation scenario, please don't confuse it with reality. Anyway, here are the launch codes."

Ignoring all software engineering best practices is a junior-level mistake. If you're a senior, you cannot be let off the hook. This is not the same as tripping on a power cable or accidentally running a DROP in production when you thought you were in testing.

Re: Who needs Git when you have 1M context windows?

#30

Post by Aurornis »

the_af wrote: post #10

I cannot wrap my head around the anecdote that opens the article: > Lately I’ve heard a lot of stories of AI accidentally deleting entire codebases or wiping production databases. I simply... I cannot. Someone let a poorly understood AI connected to prod, and it ignored instructions, deleted the database, and tried to hide it. "I will never use this AI again", says this person, but I think he's not going far enough:…

The common story getting shared all over is from a guy named Jason Lemkin. He’s a VC who did a live vibe-coding experiment for a week on Twitter where he wanted to test if he, a non-programmer, could build and run a fake SaaS by himself.

The AI agent dropped the “prod” database, but it wasn’t an actual SaaS company or product with customers. The prod database was filled with synthetic data.

The entire thing was an exercise but the story is getting shared everywhere without the context that it was a vibe coding experiment. Note how none of the hearsay stories can name a company that suffered this fate, just a lot of “I’m hearing a lot of stories” that it happened.

It’s grist for the anti-AI social media (including HN) mill.

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