GitHub Copilot - Hackdot

Re:GitHub Copilot by croes on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @12:42PM (#27678381)

Maybe it's just because humans are not as creative as they think. Whatever you do, thousands of others have done the same already. So no need to pay a high level programmer, just a mediocre one and the right AI assistant gives the same results.

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Re:GitHub Copilot by etripe on Wednesday June 30, 2021 @04:16AM (#27686207)

With an AI assistant, in the best scenario, you'll get a "wisdom of crowds" effect on implementation details and program architecture. At worst, you'll get a lot of opinionated code bloat and anti-patterns as suggestions.

For most backend programming jobs, the challenge is not in writing complex code but figuring out what the business wants, needs and should have in the first place and distinguishing between them. Figuring out how to integrate with existing systems, processes, fiefdoms and code. Knowing when to say yes and no, how to make code future proof, etc. This is a task fundamentally unfit for what we currently call "AI", because it's not actually intelligent or creative yet.

On the frontend, it becomes even more nebulous. Maybe Copilot can suggest common themes like Bootstrap classes for a form, CSS properties, the basic file structure and implementations for components in an SPA, etc. As I see it, the main challenge is in UX there, not the boilerplate, which again makes it about understanding the user, figuring out how to make UI feel intuitive, etc. Again: unfit for current AI.

I cannot offer any opinion on the utility for actually complex, FANG-level code, for lack of experience.

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Re:GitHub Copilot by juancampa on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @02:38PM (#27679960)

Quite the opposite. Menial work will be automated away (e.g. CRUD) and only good programmers will be needed to do the more complicated work.

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Re:GitHub Copilot by jqbd on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @01:01PM (#27678651)

> So no need to pay a high level programmer, just a mediocre one and the right AI assistant gives the same results.

I think of it as not needing juniors for boring work, all you need as a company is seniors and AI.

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Re:GitHub Copilot by 9dev on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @01:18PM (#27678887)

So where do these seniors come from?

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Re:GitHub Copilot by failuser on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @01:23PM (#27678959)

That’s beyond the planning horizon.

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Re:GitHub Copilot by Dylan16807 on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @03:53PM (#27680902)

You could have a much smaller pool of juniors/journeymen that are focused on maximum learning rather than amount of output.

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Re:GitHub Copilot by sterlind on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @01:18PM (#27678883)

without juniors, how do you get more seniors?

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Re:GitHub Copilot by spaced-out on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @01:58PM (#27679446)

Maybe programmers will adopt a similar model to artists and musicians. Do a lot of work for free/practically nothing hoping that some day you can make it "big" and land a full time role.

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Re:GitHub Copilot by ganzuul on Wednesday June 30, 2021 @12:28PM (#27690478)

That is already the recommendation. Pick an open source project and contribute.

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Re:GitHub Copilot by Jeff_Brown on Wednesday June 30, 2021 @09:21AM (#27688161)

And most people who consider the job are driven away by the economics of it.

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Re:GitHub Copilot by kyawzazaw on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @04:24PM (#27681258)

we already have that with unpaid interns and PhD students

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Re:GitHub Copilot by IshKebab on Tuesday June 29, 2021 @04:12PM (#27681114)

I think it's more that this tool is only capable of automating the non-creative work that thousands have done already.

It's still insanely impressive (assuming the examples aren't more cherry picked than I'd expect).

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