alt Hacker NewsNot really. Got some code you don't understand? Feed it to a model and ask it to add comments.
Ultimately humans will never need to look at most AI-generated code, any more than we have to look at the machine language emitted by a C compiler. We're a long way from that state of affairs -- as anyone who struggled with code-generation bugs in the first few generations of compilers will agree -- but we'll get there.
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> Not really. Got some code you don't understand? Feed it to a model and ask it to add comments.
Absolutely not.
An experienced individual in their field can tell if the AI made a mistake in the comments / code rather than the typical untrained eye.
So no, actually read the code and understand what it does.
> Ultimately humans will never need to look at most AI-generated code, any more than we have to look at the machine language emitted by a C compiler.
So for safety critical systems, one should not look or check if code has been AI generated?
>any more than we have to look at the machine language emitted by a C compiler.
Some developers do actually look at the output of C compilers, and some of them even spend a lot of time criticizing that output by a specific compiler (even writing long blog posts about it). The C language has an ISO specification, and if a compiler does not conform to that specification, it is considered a bug in that compiler.
You can even go to godbolt.org / compilerexplorer.org and see the output generated for different targets by different compilers for different languages. It is a popular tool, also for language development.
I do not know what prompt engineering will look like in the future, but without AGI, I remain skeptical about verification of different kinds of code not being required in at least a sizable proportion of cases. That does not exclude usefulness of course: for instance, if you have a case where verification is not needed; or verification in a specific case can be done efficiently and robustly by a relevant expert; or some smart method for verification in some cases, like a case where a few primitive tests are sufficient.
But I have no experience with LLMs or prompt engineering.
I do, however, sympathize with not wanting to deal with paying programmers. Most are likely nice, but for instance a few may be costly, or less than honest, or less than competent, etc. But while I think it is fine to explore LLMs and invest a lot into seeing what might come of them, I would not personally bet everything on them, neither in the short term nor the long term.
May I ask what your professional background and experience is?