Ana HevesiMar 31, 2024

In an age where gen AI makes it much cheaper to produce code, the ability to read, comprehend, and review code becomes that much more crucial.

Until and unless businesses and executives recognize this, they won’t actually be able to realize the economic upside of AI because they’ll be too busy creating so many fires which need putting out.
https://cute.is/@keith/112191562540684140

keith kurson (@[email protected])

@[email protected] i just watched out a LLM spit out code that would have brought down a webserver w/ an infinite loop, very nervous for when these c-levels start experimenting with launching insecure features built entirely by llms 🥴

Cuties
Show threadAna HevesiMar 31, 2024

Btw, the insight that reviewing code will become more important than producing code was introduced to me via this paper:

“Taking Flight with Copilot: Early insights and opportunities of AI-powered pair-programming tools”

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3582083

Taking Flight with Copilot: Early insights and opportunities of AI-powered pair-programming tools: Queue: Vol 20, No 6

Over the next five years, AI-powered tools likely will be helping developers in many diverse tasks. For example, such models may be used to improve code review, directing reviewers to parts of a change where review is most needed or even directly ...

Queue
Show threadAna HevesiMar 31, 2024

My assertion that grappling with the increasing importance of code review is literally a business imperative came to me while reading @grimalkina @KFosterMarks and @CSLee’s excellent work on AI skill threat:

https://www.pluralsight.com/resource-center/guides/new-developer-research-paper

Research Paper | The New Developer

Based on the latest research from the Developer Success Lab, this white paper shares a human-centered, evidence-based framework to help developers thrive during this transition to AI-Assisted coding.

Show threadAna HevesiApr 1, 2024

So, why are so many executives and investors overlooking this very basic reality that code produced is code which must be maintained, and that an acceleration of code produced thanks to gen AI means ~more risk~, not just more $$$?

I have friends who are Principal Engineers asking themselves this very question right now.

And in response, I point us to the classic Upton Sinclair quote:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Show threadGreg
@anthrocypher A dirty secret in professional sw dev is that writing obfuscated code that only one person can comprehend often leads to increased job security for them. Maybe less of a problem in OSS. But just because the source code is shared doesn't mean it is not riddled with self aggrandizing cleverness. Which is to say you have a great point about maintaining AI generated code which has a similar connection between understandability/clearness and maintainability.
Apr 1, 2024 at 4:54pmWeb
Show threadeconadsApr 5, 2024
@gregdavis @anthrocypher
This is why we have code reviews no? To make sure it's readable at least. OK not everyone does code reviews it does them well, even these days.. But they should.
Show threadKris HardyMay 5, 2024
@gregdavis @anthrocypher The other dirty little secret is that these devs are still expendable to the company.