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I'm tired of fixing customers' AI generated code

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Re: I'm tired of fixing customers' AI generated code

#51

Post by stitched2gethr »

tonyoconnell wrote: post #39

Why don't you use AI to provide support? I'm serious actually. This sounds like something AI can do really well.

I'm a bit torn. My first thought was "If the current state of the art LLMs made the mistakes it's unlikely an LLM would be able to correct them." But I'm not sure that's true if the support LLM (chat bot) is given very specific instructions so as to limit the possible answers. Still I think that's gonna break down pretty quick for other reasons.

Maybe the chat bot can recognize a botched request and even suggest a fix but what then? It certainly won't be able to convert the user's next request into a working application of even moderate complexity. And do you really want a chat bot to be the first interaction your customers have.

I think this is why we haven't seen these things take off outside of very large organizations who are looking to save money in exchange for making customers ask for a human when they need one.

Re: I'm tired of fixing customers' AI generated code

#52

Post by busterarm »

jprete wrote: post #11
TillE wrote: post #3

I'm always a little surprised at how many people out there want to develop software yet haven't put in the effort to gain even the most basic computer nerd programming chops. You see this all the time in the more newbie-friendly game engine communities. Maybe you don't want to pursue a career in software, but anyone can spend a week learning Python or JavaScript. I suspect/hope a lot of these people are just kids who…

Coding requires a willingness to understand and manipulate systems made of unbreakable rules. Most people don't want to deal with such an uncompromising method of communication.

And then there are those of us who find computers to be more bearable than people...

At least computers don't think it's their god-given right to treat you like garbage.

Re: I'm tired of fixing customers' AI generated code

#53

Post by dylan604 »

malfist wrote: post #37
dylan604 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a "Teach yourself $language in 10 days" book in a weekend, and was banging code on Monday to create the first v0.1 in a week. Of course the code was absolutely horrendous, but it worked. I still have a copy of that old database that was used, and over the years, I have turned to it as I've learned new things and have even rewritten the UI a couple of times. It has helped me stay up to date with new trends as i…

But you're building on the context of knowing a different language. Picking up the second, fifth, or nth language is easy, as long as it isn't the first one.

What makes you say that? I learned HTML using Notepad and Netscape. I had a single semester as senior in high school that taught PASCAL, but that was 7 years prior. Not really sure how that helped in the slightest.

I don't feel this is any different from someone that might have taken a class that taught HTML/JS/CSS except for that would actually be learning directly applicable to today. If that type of person jumped into a bootcamp, I feel like that would be similar to anything I experienced if not better. The internet is a thing now so there is so much more access to anything I had.

Re: I'm tired of fixing customers' AI generated code

#54

Post by busterarm »

protocolture wrote: post #26

Yeah so every tech revolution does this right. ATMs were meant to kill banking jobs but ah theres more jobs in banking than ever. The Cloud was meant to automate away tech people, but all it did was create new tech jobs. A lot of which is cleaning up after idiots who think they can outsource everything to the cloud and get burned. LLMs are no different. The "Ideas Man" can now get from 0 to 30% without approaching a…

> ATMs were meant to kill banking jobs but ah theres more jobs in banking than ever.

ATMs only handle basic teller functions and since COVID in NYC I had to change banks twice because I couldn't find actual tellers or banks with reasonable open hours. BoA had these virtual-teller only branches and the video systems were always broken (and the only option on Saturday). This was in Midtown Manhattan and my only option was basically a single branch on the other side of town 8-4 M-F.

I'm now happily with a credit union but at least since moving to the south things are generally better because customers won't tolerate not being able to deal with an actual person.

Re: I'm tired of fixing customers' AI generated code

#55

Post by alexeiz »

I had a related episode at work when my coworker asked me why his seemingly trivial 10 line piece of code was misbehaving inexplicably. It turned out he had two variables `file_name` and `filename` and used one in place of another. I asked him how he ended up with such code, he said he used copilot to create it. Using code from a generative AI without understanding what it does is never a good idea.

Re: I'm tired of fixing customers' AI generated code

#56

Post by aunty_helen »

lagniappe wrote: post #18

There's room for all of us in this industry. What someone is unwilling to do is just an opportunity for someone else to pick up the yoke.

This could actually be an ingenious way of solving the problem. If someone has a support issue and can't solve it themselves, yet requires coding help, forward them a freelancer that they can hire for 20$/hr from upwork that knows this API well etc.

Re: I'm tired of fixing customers' AI generated code

#57

Post by sergiotapia »

wuming2 wrote: post #44
mrbombastic wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A week is not anywhere close to enough to learn programming in any meaningful way for someone with no experience.

Time to expertise is down to zero in “Fake until you make it” circles. 260 week-long iterations later, having survived the “hype curve” and the “Valley of Death”, they declare themselves “battle-proven”. A.k.a. experts.

the worst is when someone knows all the keywords to make it seem like they are technical but after talking for a few days you realize wait they really don't know wtf they're talking about!

Re: I'm tired of fixing customers' AI generated code

#60

Post by frumper »

alexeiz wrote: post #55

I had a related episode at work when my coworker asked me why his seemingly trivial 10 line piece of code was misbehaving inexplicably. It turned out he had two variables `file_name` and `filename` and used one in place of another. I asked him how he ended up with such code, he said he used copilot to create it. Using code from a generative AI without understanding what it does is never a good idea.

I knew a guy that made a good living as a freelance web developer decades ago. He would pretty much just copy and paste code from tutorials or stack overflow and had no real idea how anything worked. Using code without understanding it is never a good idea, it doesn’t need to be from AI for that to be true.
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