Given how few programmers very seriously write lots of assembly, it's kind of astonishing how good LLMs are at working with assembly. They can compile and decompile all on their own with apparently very little effort.

I suspect (with zero proof or understanding) that this has something to do with how well C maps to assembly. It's not a stretch to say the model's vector space maps this chunk of assembly with that line of C. And we all know how much C code exists online.

Eventually that will be the way, revenge of COBOL and 4GLs.

"Congratulations! You've reinvented compilers, except slower, unpredictable, hopelessly proprietary, and you have to pay to use it."

(Oh, and the "compiler" will also refuse to generate certain types of programs.)

There is evidence that LLMs are capable of making assembly that runs a great deal more efficiently than the compiler can manage on its own.