AI generated code will choke delivery pipelines

varoa.net

4 points·srvaroa··4 comments

Starting from the premise that an LLM can take a few bullet points and turn them into a 3000 word email, what is the expected result of giving it a few lines of code to complete? Has any programmer ever thought, "my problem is that can't type fast enough"?

I guess yes? https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/

You're not the first person to equate "typing more code faster" with velocity, productivity, execution speed, or whatever you want to call it. Even for Luu, typing speed is important not for generating more faster, it's about being able to accomplish the important tasks that are a part of the job in less time.

I'm sure many people have equated "typing code faster" with velocity, productivity, and execution speed. But I am not doing it.

I'm saying that given N developers, if they all type code faster, you get more code. From the linked text: "Will this translate into a net increase of actual value or just an accumulation of slop and technical debt? Regardless of the answer, there will be more raw code."

The argument I'm making is based on more volume of code. Not on quality, value, etc. of whatever that code is doing.

On your point about nobody having thought "my problem is that can't type fast enough". The problem "shit, I'd know what I want, I'd rather spend 10 minutes typing than 1 hour" is real. An LLM allows you to say "I want a piece of code that does X" and it hydrates that into the 500 lines of code. You materialize the thing faster.

Now. Yes we can go back to your point. Was that idea good? Is the code good enough? etc. Those are valid questions, but orthogonal to my point. My point is not about the quality of outputs etc. It's about "this thing helps you churn more code, and throw it to the systems that digest code".

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