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AdditionalPizza OP t1_isskcpn wrote

Reply to comment by whatTheBumfuck in Will OpenAI's improved Codex put programmers on the chopping block? by AdditionalPizza

Exactly, and it will lower the skill level required to do it, no? So more competition and lower wage?

I'm looking at this from the perspective of entry level, not highly skilled engineer.

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whatTheBumfuck t1_istf5dk wrote

The problem is that you're imagining an ideal system where it just 'magically' does exactly what you want. And that's assuming you actually know exactly what you want (newsflash usually people don't). In order to get a computer to do exactly what you want, you need be able to describe it in terms that the computer can understand. That's what programming is at its most fundamental level. "Make a form that looks good" isn't going to cut it. It may generate 10 different forms that aren't exactly what you want or need. At that point you need a specialist who is particularly skilled at describing to AI systems exactly what they want, and getting the exact kind of output required. This kind of specialist is also known as a programmer.

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All of this is completely ignoring the fact that we'll still need people who actually understand whatever output 'programs' these AI systems are generating. No sane company is just going to use a bunch of black-box code that could randomly do something unpredictable or unsafe at any time because no one in the company is actually able to understand the generated code.

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Also, who is creating these AI systems? Programmers!

A more reasonable comparison you could make is to tools like WordPress. Web developers used to be able to make a good living from building/coding simple brochure-style websites from scratch with simple css and html. Now you don't really need to know how to code to make one if you're using something like WordPress or Squarespace. But if you've used either of these (wp in particular...) you'll know that it's anything but simple. And also they are usually extremely limited in what they're actually capable of producing. Oh and guess what - thousands of people (at least) make their entire career extending wordpress and other tools like it. I know several people that have built careers out of using wordpress to create simple websites without ever learning a lick of code.

So no, just because you can get a computer to generate some code, doesn't mean it's necessarily going to make the job easier, or more accessible, or that it will put all programmers out of work. The only thing I think is guaranteed is that the tools programmers use will change -- but this has literally always been the case in this field.

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AdditionalPizza OP t1_istidql wrote

Hmm, I respect your opinion on this, but I do disagree on some of it.

Needing someone "specialized" in inputting English text prompts (very likely voice to text soon with Whisper) is exactly what this tech is conquering.

Different, but only kind of, text to image. You can just be as specific as you want. You can put "a castle on a hill with a dragon" or you can put "a medieval European style castle with flying buttresses extending down from a walkway above a sprawling fortified wooden gate, situated on top of a grassy hill covered in poppies, surrounded by a dark blue watered mote, with a fire breathing dragon that has golden scales shimmering in rays of sunlight peaking through dark billowing storm clouds" and then from there further edit details to get exactly what you want.

With upcoming voice to text, and an assumption on my part, a friendly user interface, I can't see how making the front end of a website exactly how you want. I'm not very familiar with backend stuff so I'll admit I can't speak much to that, and security and such.

I really have no idea, none of us do at this point. But I just imagine whoever is telling the programmer what they want could describe it to the AI just as easily and get next to real time results.

>Also, who is creating these AI systems? Programmers!

I realize this, but that's far from an entry level position that's easily expendable. I'm focused on those that are beginning a career more so than those that are in the industry and highly skilled.

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