Comments on: Hype or not? AI’s benefits for developers explored in the 2023 Developer Survey

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 07:18:00 +0000

5% of developers highly distrust AI. 5% of developers are competent. Coincidence?

By: ouflak

ouflak — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 11:30:00 +0000

But this isn’t true Artificial Intelligence is it? And the fact that a company as supposedly reputable as StackExchange would even refer to it as such is rather worrying. If humans ever do truly develop a sentient intelligence, that will be among the greatest breakthroughs technologically, philosophically, and scientifically in the history of mankind. It will answer so many open questions about our place in the universe and what it means to be a Creator, and it will open up so many more questions that we can’t even fathom at this point in our existence. Our very assumptions about how we define reality, the ethics of living things, even how far should we should go in bringing new life into the universe and the means we choose to do so, will all be called into the deepest question – perhaps revised, perhaps completely revamped.

If this was truly ‘AI’, the rep farmers have abandoned their efforts with it immediately. Because a truly sentient being would have enough awareness and perspective to be able to say some of the wisest words any intelligent being can ever utter, “I don’t know.” And that would be the answer, though depressingly unsatisfying, that would be returned almost all of the time to their inquiries.

I don’t have any issues with these chatbot LLM’s. I think there is great potential for their positive contribution in many notable and interesting settings, and I genuinely hope that is pursued. But that doesn’t mean we should let go of our own ethical responsibilities. We should NOT allow a flood of incorrect information, in some cases potentially dangerously incorrect information, to flood and dominate the Q/A sites. This can destroy the good reputation of StackExchange. This can open up the business to avoidable liability. I do hope that once the leadership of StackExchange peers through the marketing gimmickry, they reel in their enthusiasm and will begin to take more practical and pragmatic approaches to all of this.

By: Jorge Morales Rodríguez

Jorge Morales Rodríguez — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 04:27:00 +0000

I am in a word flabergasted

By: David

David — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 05:21:00 +0000

One of the big issues I had with your survey, this article, and SO’s general discussion of “AI” is that you aren’t being specific. For example, when I answered that survey, I wasn’t thinking of GPT models or systems like co-pilot. I was specifically thinking about Visual Studio’s Intellicode, which can’t be directly compared to the other two. While it is extremely helpful and trustworthy, the two former are not, and are very much hype-driven. The failure to be more specific is a failure to collect reliable data, which in turn means your interpretation of that data is going to be unreliable.

To a professional developer with nearly 2 decades of experience, SO’s discussion of AI has been misguided and vague, loaded with marketing lingo but very little true substance. This is yet another example in that ongoing saga.