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AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs

newscientist.com

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Re: AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs

#91

Post by adangert »

falcolas wrote: post #77
cabalamat wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> im told that "software developers are the one job that will never be at risk of automation" The AI is itself a program. If the AI can write programs, it can write a better version of itself. A few iterations of this, and it will have far surpassed human intelligence. So it would be more accurate to say that writing programs is the last job that will be automated.

This makes the assumption that every program it writes is somehow guaranteed to be better than the original. Why would it not run into the Multiplicity problem, where each subsequent copy is a bit dumber than the original? I would think it would be much more likely follow a normal evolutionary model - improve itself to a local maxima, then just stall while the random mutations fail to make the huge leap required to h…

The difference here is the "intelligence" of an AI can be described as a loss function, so if an AI can build and then train another AI which can achieve a better overall score from many examples in its loss function, then that AI, with perhaps a deep neural network will start to "understand" or the components that make a successful neural network. Thus it could use intelligence rather than random mutations to evolve.

Re: AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs

#92

Post by jlebrech »

Raphmedia wrote: post #88
y4mi wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that sounds pretty easy to debug though but the verbosity.... it will be a lot of writing, even for a simple function

> that sounds pretty easy to debug though Sounds like a nightmare to me. How do you describe a bug to an AI? "Dear AI, that SQL query you did break on my server. Could you improve it and regenerate all your code? ... Nope, still doesn't work. Could you try again?"

and the guy you eventually pay to fix the bug comes back from the bahamas and spends 2 mins to fix it then goes back home with a fat check.

Re: AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs

#93

Post by bartread »

danesparza wrote: post #90
bartread wrote: post #54

"AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs" Much like non-artificial intelligence, then.

But with much, much less humor.

Well, that depends on the code (or perhaps whose code) it steals. :)

Re: AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs

#94

Post by empath75 »

falcolas wrote: post #79

A nit I'd like to pick. No, AI didn't write code. A program explicitly built and trained to write code , wrote code. A bit too pedantic, perhaps, but there isn't some singular program out there which first learned to play chess, then see and catalog pictures, create creepy art, play Go, drive cars, and now write code. Which is what "AI learns to X" seems to imply. Of course, that's not as interesting of a headline.

There are many different kinds of AI, other than general purpose AI.

Re: AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs

#95

Post by jackcosgrove »

Programming is translation of requirements written in natural language, graphical notation, and mathematical notation to a deterministic syntax. There has been much improvement in making these syntaxes more closely match these older forms of communication, and I'm sure this is one tool that will be used in the future. However until AI can gather its own requirements, there will always be a translation step that people must do. When this technology comes to fruition, requirements gathering will become programming.

Re: AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs

#96

Post by SimpleXYZ »

darpa_escapee wrote: post #29
jondwillis wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I do wonder what will we do when computers do everything for us. Yeah, this is a pretty existential question that has been posed a lot around here. What do you do if you do not have to do anything? It is like vacation, forever. You are free to be lazy, or creative, or adventurous, or somewhere in between, but will you be happier? I have been between significant work for a few months and I am itching to do something…

> It is like vacation, forever. I guess that's one way to look at death from malnutrition, exposure or untreated illness. We can wax optimistic about what post-automation life could be like, but let's be honest: right now, unless you are an investor in companies that have automated or provide automation solutions, you are in absolutely no position to see 'vacation, forever' on the horizon for yourself or your childre…

If society can change from taxes on tea being too high, it can change when unemployment is 91%.

Re: AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs

#98

Post by naasking »

geophile wrote: post #69
kleiba wrote: post #45

“It could allow non-coders to simply describe an idea for a program and let the system build it” This is not a new thought. The problem with it, however, is that such a description would have to be very precise or else leave room for different interpretations which in turn could lead to very different programs being generated. In particular, as programmers know, it's often the edge cases that pose the main difficulty…

Doesn't TDD basically provide a spec? Write a test, then let the AI generate a program that passes the test. If the program is still buggy, you didn't write sufficient tests.

Tests are much more verbose than specs. Test validate existential properties, ie. there exist inputs where property P is true, but specs can also specify universal properties, ie. for all inputs property P is true.

Static types also specify universal properties, which is why tests can't replace types, even in theory. But tests+types could be a type of spec.

Re: AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs

#99

Post by codr4life »

At least when code monkeys copy-paste from Stack Overflow, there's a trace of common sense in the loop. Yes, it's possible to copy-paste your way to working software without having a clue. No, it's not a very good idea. How about if we shut these clowns down and use the money for research that has a chance of improving anything?

Re: AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs

#100

Post by flippyfloppies »

codr4life wrote: post #99

At least when code monkeys copy-paste from Stack Overflow, there's a trace of common sense in the loop. Yes, it's possible to copy-paste your way to working software without having a clue. No, it's not a very good idea. How about if we shut these clowns down and use the money for research that has a chance of improving anything?

calm down, it's not coming for your job yet. soon, though.
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