this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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Programming
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Have you used AI to code? You don't say "hey, write this file" and then commit it as "AI Bot 123 aibot@company.com".
You start writing a method and get auto-completes that are sometimes helpful. Or you ask the bot to write out an algorithm. Or to copy something and modify it 30 times.
You're not exactly keeping track of everything the bots did.
I used it only as last resort. I verify it before using it. I only had used it for like .11% of my project. I would not recommend AI.
yeah, that's... one of the points in the article
I'll admit I skimmed most of that train wreak of an article - I think it's pretty generous saying that it had a point. It's mostly recounts of people complaining about AI. But if they hid something in there about it being remarkably useful in cases but not writing entire applications or features then I guess I'm on board?
Well, sometimes I think the web is flooded with advertising an spam praising AI. For these companies, it makes perfect sense because billions of dollars has been spent at these companies and they are trying to cash in before the tides might turn.
But do you know what is puzzling (and you do have a point here)? Many posts that defend AI do not engage in logical argumentation but they argue beside the point, appeal to emotions or short-circuited argumentation that "new" always equals "better", or claiming that AI is useful for coding as long as the code is not complex (compare that to the objection that mathematics is simple as long it is not complex, which is a red herring and a laughable argument). So, many thanks for you pointing out the above points and giving in few words a bunch of examples which underline that one has to think carefully about this topic!
The problem is that you really only see two sorts of articles.
I actually see a lot more of the latter response on social media to the point where I'm developing a visceral response to the phrase "AI slop".
Both stances are patently ridiculous though. AI cannot replace developers and it doesn't need to be perfect to be useful. It turns out that it is a remarkably useful tool if you understand its limitations and use it in a reasonable way.
Don't forget all these artists and developers are staring unemployment in the face so it's no wonder they phone it in when they "try" to use AI.
"Make me a program that does this complex thing across many systems..... It didn't work on the first try AI SLOP REEEEEEE!"
Forks suck at eating soup yet are still useful.
it's a car that only explodes once in a blue moon!
No, it's a car that breaks down once you go faster than 60km/h. It's extremely useful if you know what you're doing and use it only for tasks that it's good at.
if that's the analogy yoou want, make it 20 kmh
Yeah, that's what I thought. Another useless AI hater. You people are even worse than the AI fanboy techbros! AI is a wonderful tool for those who know how to use it. It has increased my productivity by at least 30% and it can do all the mundane and boring coding while I focus on the interesting aspects!
Hey @dgerard@awful.systems, care to weigh in on this "train wreak [sic] of an article?"
I asked Github Copilot and it added
import wreakto .NET, so we'll get back to you.We could see how the copilot PRs went:
This seems like a very bad idea. I think we just need more lisp and less AI.
"Hey AI - Create a struct that matches this JSON document that I get from a REST service"
Bam, it's done.
Or
"Hey AI - add a schema prefixed on all of the tables and insert statements in the SQL script.
People have such a hate boner for AI here that they are downvoting actual good use of it...
Yeah integrating APIs has really become trivial with copilots. You just copy paste the documentation and all the boring stuff is done in the blink of an eye ! I love it
It's exactly the sort of "tedious yet not difficult" task that I love it for. Sometimes you need to clean things up a bit but it does the majority of the work very nicely.