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Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

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71–80 of 205 posts

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#73
post #70

While I have been expecting AI to replace programmers for a while, the thing I was never sure about whether this will manifest itself as a business for some companies or whether it means the end of people creating apps altogether. Another risk for building businesses on AI in general is that unlike with software that anyone can build (e.g. for a niche), AI solutions seem to be costly because they require a lot of dat…

Yea, it's going to be interesting to see how this all unfolds.

In my opinion, the future of software development looks like this:

1) Human developer instructs A.I. bots to build large volumes of code (like Second)

2) Human developer uses A.I. code assistants in the IDE to make "low level" changes or additions

I do not believe that developers or engineers will be replaced. The world needs more software, and there's not enough of us to build it all. Quite frankly, we need the help of bots to meet the demand.

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#76
post #70

While I have been expecting AI to replace programmers for a while, the thing I was never sure about whether this will manifest itself as a business for some companies or whether it means the end of people creating apps altogether. Another risk for building businesses on AI in general is that unlike with software that anyone can build (e.g. for a niche), AI solutions seem to be costly because they require a lot of dat…

Yea, it's going to be interesting to see how this all unfolds. In my opinion, the future of software development looks like this: 1) Human developer instructs A.I. bots to build large volumes of code (like Second) 2) Human developer uses A.I. code assistants in the IDE to make "low level" changes or additions I do not believe that developers or engineers will be replaced. The world needs more software, and there's no…

I absolutely think people wont get hired though, that otherwise would

Instead of looking for layoffs, look for the jobs and payment transactions never happening

Note: this doesn't bother me

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#77
post #70

While I have been expecting AI to replace programmers for a while, the thing I was never sure about whether this will manifest itself as a business for some companies or whether it means the end of people creating apps altogether. Another risk for building businesses on AI in general is that unlike with software that anyone can build (e.g. for a niche), AI solutions seem to be costly because they require a lot of dat…

Yea, it's going to be interesting to see how this all unfolds. In my opinion, the future of software development looks like this: 1) Human developer instructs A.I. bots to build large volumes of code (like Second) 2) Human developer uses A.I. code assistants in the IDE to make "low level" changes or additions I do not believe that developers or engineers will be replaced. The world needs more software, and there's no…

No/low-code not working this time either is not a surprise. All these attempts have been made several times throughout the history. Also, as Fred Brooks famously said there is no silver bullet: no/low-code promised to be a silver bullet while only removing the accidental complexities (again, Brooks' terminology).

AI changes this, however. The scenario you are describing assumes that AI will get stuck, as I said. Otherwise I don't see why we would still need humans to supervise it. But if it can write good enough software without expensive human beings making corrections left and right, it will be able to do a lot of the jobs that we're trying to make more efficient (or even possible) with all this software we're writing. E.g. you don't really need GitHub (Jira, etc.) if you don't have a lot of developers cooperating. And this is true for a lot of white collar professions that we're creating these heaps of web apps for, that generate all that demand that you are mentioning.

If we get stuck (and, BTW, have some time to figure out how to live with AI) then sure, we'll have programmers (and non-programmers with good analytical skills) command and supervise AI coders. Everyone and their colleague will turn into a tech-lead/product manager. If.

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people implement things like forgot password and billing once and copy/paste in the next projects if they need.

Yea! That kinda works, except that libraries, frameworks, and paradigms evolve so rapidly in the web, often times you need to rebuild it anyways. I also want to be more supportive of junior developers. Second can help scaffold and get large chunks of standard code in place for them to build on, rather than starting with empty files. This is especially useful when adding a new feature to an existing web application (i…

> libraries, frameworks, and paradigms evolve so rapidly in the web

Speaking of that issue, wasn't GPT-3 trained with data that doesn't go past 2021? Won't this be an issue for any AI assistant using GPT-3 to write code?

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OpenAI has the GPT models, not Microsoft. Also the open source models like BLOOM are getting better over time and when OpenAI pulls the rug, maybe they'll be competitive.

> OpenAI has the GPT models, not Microsoft. Haha no. There is no future where OpenAI operates independently of Microsoft. OpenAI is functionally beholden to MS. 49% is a paper contrivance to present a facade that they're still in control. They're not. The tail is wagging the dog, and in this case the tail is a trillion dollar dragon that OpenAI lowered the drawbridge and invited inside.

Why do you say that?

Re: Launch HN: Second (YC W23) – AI bots that add features to web apps

#80
Congrats on the launch!

Some thoughts:

- Options are severely limited. Only Next.js and MUI? If there's only 1 stack, doesn't feel like there's any AI in going on

- Would be nice to see some live template sites without having to connect my GitHub and run them manually.

- This feels like cookiecutter, but for multiple languages and a nice wrapper. The GPT bit doesn't interest me (well, from a technical standpoint it does)

- You're running up against the hundreds of template sites that already exist. What's the unique selling point? The configurability?

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