this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
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These are 17 of the worst, most cringeworthy Google AI overview answers:

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[–] admin@lemmy.my-box.dev 17 points 6 months ago (6 children)

It should not be used to replace programmers. But it can be very useful when used by programmers who know what they're doing. ("do you see any flaws in this code?" / "what could be useful approaches to tackle X, given constraints A, B and C?"). At worst, it can be used as rubber duck debugging that sometimes gives useful advice or when no coworker is available.

[–] kbin_space_program@kbin.run 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

The article I posted references a study where chatgpt was wrong 52% of the time and verbose 77% of the time.

And that it was believed to be true more than it actually was. And the study was explicitly on programming questions.

[–] admin@lemmy.my-box.dev 18 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah, I saw. But when I'm stuck on a programming issue, I have a couple of options:

  • ask an LLM that I can explain the issue to, correct my prompt a couple of times when it's getting things wrong, and then press retry a couple of times to get something useful.
  • ask online and wait. Hoping that some day, somebody will come along that has the knowledge and the time to answer.

Sure, LLMs may not be perfect, but not having them as an option is worse, and way slower.

In my experience - even when the code it generates is wrong, it will still send you in the right direction concerning the approach. And if it keeps spewing out nonsense, that's usually an indication that what you want is not possible.

[–] aubertlone@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I am completely convinced that people who say LLMs should not be used for coding.....

Either do not do much coding for work, or they have not used an LLM when tackling a problem in an unfamiliar language or tech stack.

[–] kbin_space_program@kbin.run 7 points 6 months ago

I haven't had need to do it.

I can ask people I work with who do know, or I can find the same thing ChatGPT provides in either la huage or project documentation, usually presented in a better format.

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