Can AI write code? Yes. In fact I’ll sometimes give it obtuse code I wrote and ask if there’s a way to simplify it, then use that as a jumping board on where I might want to head.
You know what else it does? Not understand context, or situations it hasn’t been made explicitly aware of.
I’ve given it plenty of things that it spit back just plainly incorrect or fundamentally altered code. Sometimes it’s just ignoring best security practices, sometimes it’s trying to use a string as an int, sometimes it just makes up “standard” functions that don’t actually exist because someone one said “wouldn’t it be nice is int.ThisFunctionName existed and did specific thing?”
Anyone shitting on AI for spitting out code is missing the point. Vibe coding is fine for personal projects that never get released to the world, but the moment you’re trying to build a business on top, or want to release it? Vibe coding is downright dangerous. There have been a number of vibe coded websites that were just sitting open for anyone to look at the personal information, because no one who knew what they were doing was involved.
There have been a number of vibe coded php websites that were just sitting open for anyone to look at the personal information, because no one who knew what they were doing was involved.
Re-wrote this for you for 2016.
Just saying, the web has been like this forever. The only thing AI is changing about people building insecure websites with shit code that that they look like someone talked to a designer for 10 seconds before it went up.
I am using PHP as a metaphor. Like, even a script kiddie could get up a working PHP site and it doesn’t matter how spaghetti the code is - it will still run.
Even a vibe coded site can be secured, the language doesn’t matter. Shitty sites with terrible security have always and will always exist on the web. AI didn’t start this trend and we should not pretend like web development has been like this for years.
AI didn’t start the trend but it has pushed that change to an extreme. A user who has no concept of security can sling up a nice, polished-looking application and publish it to the web. That was always “possible” but the bar needed to get to the point of publishing was higher, so the chances of pushing insecure code was lower.
The number of “developers” who literally don’t know how their application works is staggering. I have seen people literally say “I don’t know how it works” of their own project, and that should be terrifying for published code.
Again, for small diy things it’s whatever. But as a project released into the wild it is, at least currently, irresponsible.
How exactly are you using AI? Are you from 2023? If the AI cannot compile, lint, or type check it’s outputs with deterministic tools, you’re straight up using it wrong. I have a compiler for a reason, I want the AI to use that, not it’s vague memory.
When it comes to missing context, that’s (in most cases) on the developer calling it. It cannot have context that you do not give it. If the hyperspecific reason that module A is built weird (some insane legacy customer request maybe) only lives in the minds and hearts of developers having worked on it 3 years ago, that’s a failure of documentation, not the AI. A human could not have done better. Obviously, there’s limits to everything, but in my personal experience 95% of issues with AI agents would’ve have likely happened with a freshly onboarded human too.
The definition of vibe coding has shifted a bunch of times. I will agree that any non-developer using it for anything even remotely important/dangerous is asking for trouble. But a developer who knows the possible pitfalls can get pretty freaking far.
For me, the biggest fear is that noones educating/hiring juniors anymore. As a senior, that’s job security, but it will still fuck us over once we run out of old people that know what vim is.
Eeeeh. I disagree. Disclosure: I’m a developer.
Can AI write code? Yes. In fact I’ll sometimes give it obtuse code I wrote and ask if there’s a way to simplify it, then use that as a jumping board on where I might want to head.
You know what else it does? Not understand context, or situations it hasn’t been made explicitly aware of.
I’ve given it plenty of things that it spit back just plainly incorrect or fundamentally altered code. Sometimes it’s just ignoring best security practices, sometimes it’s trying to use a string as an int, sometimes it just makes up “standard” functions that don’t actually exist because someone one said “wouldn’t it be nice is int.ThisFunctionName existed and did specific thing?”
Anyone shitting on AI for spitting out code is missing the point. Vibe coding is fine for personal projects that never get released to the world, but the moment you’re trying to build a business on top, or want to release it? Vibe coding is downright dangerous. There have been a number of vibe coded websites that were just sitting open for anyone to look at the personal information, because no one who knew what they were doing was involved.
Re-wrote this for you for 2016.
Just saying, the web has been like this forever. The only thing AI is changing about people building insecure websites with shit code that that they look like someone talked to a designer for 10 seconds before it went up.
No, that’s quite different. PHP is a language, any language can be made secure so long as it isn’t running client side.
This is like saying PHP and a script kiddy are equivalent.
I am using PHP as a metaphor. Like, even a script kiddie could get up a working PHP site and it doesn’t matter how spaghetti the code is - it will still run.
Even a vibe coded site can be secured, the language doesn’t matter. Shitty sites with terrible security have always and will always exist on the web. AI didn’t start this trend and we should not pretend like web development has been like this for years.
AI didn’t start the trend but it has pushed that change to an extreme. A user who has no concept of security can sling up a nice, polished-looking application and publish it to the web. That was always “possible” but the bar needed to get to the point of publishing was higher, so the chances of pushing insecure code was lower.
The number of “developers” who literally don’t know how their application works is staggering. I have seen people literally say “I don’t know how it works” of their own project, and that should be terrifying for published code.
Again, for small diy things it’s whatever. But as a project released into the wild it is, at least currently, irresponsible.
How exactly are you using AI? Are you from 2023? If the AI cannot compile, lint, or type check it’s outputs with deterministic tools, you’re straight up using it wrong. I have a compiler for a reason, I want the AI to use that, not it’s vague memory.
When it comes to missing context, that’s (in most cases) on the developer calling it. It cannot have context that you do not give it. If the hyperspecific reason that module A is built weird (some insane legacy customer request maybe) only lives in the minds and hearts of developers having worked on it 3 years ago, that’s a failure of documentation, not the AI. A human could not have done better. Obviously, there’s limits to everything, but in my personal experience 95% of issues with AI agents would’ve have likely happened with a freshly onboarded human too.
The definition of vibe coding has shifted a bunch of times. I will agree that any non-developer using it for anything even remotely important/dangerous is asking for trouble. But a developer who knows the possible pitfalls can get pretty freaking far.
For me, the biggest fear is that noones educating/hiring juniors anymore. As a senior, that’s job security, but it will still fuck us over once we run out of old people that know what vim is.