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AI is replacing Coders, not Engineers. Learn CS now!

Dima Sukharev on April 24, 2023

first lets grow my twitter, i will probably change all of the world obsolete education systems, not sure yet, the more people follow me — the easie...
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darkwiiplayer profile image
𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️

I'm still not quite over the fact that this is even a problem. Humanity is well on its way to automate one of the last things that had so far been impossible to automate, and instead of being happy that there'll be even less work left for actual people, we're obsessing over preventing it.

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emi_black_ace profile image
Jacob Van Wagoner

The hard part about programming is never "coding." The hard part is always "coming up with a solution to the problem." LLMs aren't going to replace the latter, only the former. I'm happy about that.

If we're going to whine about stuff getting automated then we might as well (in increasing order of absurdity):

  • ditch checkout scanners and bring back the middle class skilled profession of "store clerk" who tallies up the price of the goods.

  • get rid of the machines that fill pastries with creme and manually inject creme into all our Twinkies.

  • go back to assembly line manufacturing by hand for vehicles

  • eliminate tractors and go back to planting fields by hand

Because the important thing is keeping people in jobs, right? At every single one of those things and more, people protested about job losses.

There will always be more things for people to do. Getting them out of the boring stuff that they don't like doing, while still getting that stuff done, frees them up to do something else. The disruption is always temporary.

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riceball1 profile image
Dana Ng

True, and this will always open up doors for more things humans can do. I feel the fear in a lot of the articles about AI replacing this or that job, but people adapt and new jobs do come out of it. Also things evolve and adapt around the new changes.

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emi_black_ace profile image
Jacob Van Wagoner

"BUt tHiS TiMe it'S DIFfErEnt!" - every news outlet ever, which get more views and more revenue when people think there's impending doom, which also said the same thing about every other disruptive automation tech.

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disukharev profile image
Dima Sukharev

same opinion, cant wait when i tell some AI-IDE what i want to build to solve a problem and i dont manage implemetations details

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daniel_brenzel profile image
Daniel Brenzel

There shouldn't be a discussion to revert the progression. (Environmental concerns by side)
The problem in the automation of simple tasks is the increasing complexity of the remaining ones. At some point cognitive load may be getting to big for some people to handle.
There should be a social debate about the implications of this problem.

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nakawawa profile image
x2

"LLMs aren't going to replace the latter" They will, just not yet

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emi_black_ace profile image
Jacob Van Wagoner

Everybody said that about "no code" but ironically all it did was increase the demand for developers.

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spookyaction profile image
Louis-Alexandre Simard

I rather keep my job.
By the way like 60% of everything you consume isn't automated. All your clothes are still stitched by hand as there is no robot on earth capable of stitching by itself.

Your electronics are assembled by hand.

The future you describe is one where the only jobs available are low to no skill and liw pay.

We will move boxes and make lattes and own nothing

Sounds amazing

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darkwiiplayer profile image
𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️

Given enough time, AI will probably enable robots to do more and more of these tasks as well. At some point humanity will just have to accept that the model of full-time employment for the entire population just isn't sustainable, and we'll have to start leaning back more. Well, that or we continue this weird "capitalism" nonsense, whereby "not enough work" is somehow a bad thing.

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disukharev profile image
Dima Sukharev

honestly i dont like coding, i love building. im happy AI will automate manual labour typing and could not manage zoo of libraries with 10000 different implementations of the same thing

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teddylumidi profile image
Teddy Lumidi

Most people don't like the idea that most of humanity will be super empowered by AI. And some competitors want to have advantage over their competitors thats why the thought of AI makes some people worried

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tensorprogramming profile image
Tensor-Programming • Edited

I firmly believe that, indeed, some programming teams may be smaller due to a single programmer's increased productivity with the assistance of a large language model (LLM) as a valuable tool. However, any company that replaces an entire department or team with an LLM fails to grasp the true nature of how LLMs function. A noteworthy yet often overlooked example is an amateur Go player who consistently defeated the world's most advanced Go AI by utilizing a basic concept of the game.

Essentially, the researcher managed to triumph over the 5000+ MMR Go AI approximately 96% of the time by employing what they termed the "double capture technique." They created multiple loops on the board to capture stones, but the AI neglected the inner loop. This is significant because it demonstrates that a Go program capable of defeating top Go players worldwide does not genuinely comprehend the game of Go. Even a novice Go player would know to evade such captures as they award numerous points to the opponent, yet this AI appeared indifferent.

Most importantly, these Go AIs employ the same methods used in all LLMs. Although these AIs may be able to pass the bar exam or compose a top-tier essay, they lack a true understanding of their actions. In the context of coding, this implies that these systems are approximating code writing rather than genuinely writing code like a programmer. They can mimic and identify patterns in existing code, but their limited understanding can also lead to hallucinations.

This is also the reason why these tools will always require the presence of an individual with domain expertise to fully leverage their capabilities. Without comprehension, these LLMs cannot operate independently. Even something like AutoGPT needs a chaperone to work properly.

For context, I am an engineer who has been working with GPT-3, GPT-4, and GitHub Copilot X for several months now. While these tools have saved me time in various instances, the experience is not akin to pair programming with a junior developer; it feels more like guiding a search engine to locate the information I need. Although it can generate code and retrieve information more rapidly than traditional engines, the resulting code is just as prone to flaws as any content found on GitHub or Stack Overflow.

This IMO is the biggest flaw with modern AI systems and until someone figures out a different way to build an AI or a way to cover these weaknesses, the current generation of AI won't be able to fully automate these more complex jobs without the help of a human.

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disukharev profile image
Dima Sukharev

absolutely agree here, great text, thanks for sharing

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josetorresks profile image
josetorresKS
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tensorprogramming profile image
Tensor-Programming

Exactly. Hadn't watched his video but I had read the research paper when it came out and it raised an eyebrow...

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josetorresks profile image
josetorresKS

Literally this video

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Timileyin Akinyemi

I love this documentation. 👍

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liveuk profile image
Mike Hebblethwaite

Edit suggestion on your twitter profile.

Current "Helping World with software while having fun"

Suggestion ""Helping the world with software while having fun."

Or this as we expand

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disukharev profile image
Dima Sukharev

thanks for that <3

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sabbir2609 profile image
sabbir2609

well said

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njengah profile image
Joe Njenga

This is spot on. I saw this two years back 😊

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christian_go3 profile image
Christian GO

Fear mongering to sell a scam product.

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disukharev profile image
Dima Sukharev

ohh the internet, i love it

i've found a Stanford CS 101 for you for FREE ❤️

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nakawawa profile image
x2

nonsense, coders will use GPT and engineer's tools to create products for user demand, this is about money, and survival, stop gatekeeping what we should learn son.

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disukharev profile image
Dima Sukharev

dad, i asked you not to comment on my posts, people are watching! i told you and mom that coding is manual labour and it will be less and less demand for clicking keyboard when Copilot gets more accurate and engineers solve problems 666 times faster with less need to hire more coders <3