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Microsoft's Pricey AI Assistant Copilot Leaves Early Adopters Feeling Cheated
(www.ibtimes.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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Is it me or is this a weird statement for what's supposed to be an exact science?
Imagine working in construction and using a level and you're told "it's not that it's a bad level, you just gotta be careful with it".
How much margin for error should we allow for getting our code right? Is it now acceptable if we only get 80% right?
I use copilot a bit for my work - and I treat it like copy-paste from StackOverflow - sure that codeat look right, but you've gotta double check it and test it a few times before you commit and push.
As a software developer I promise you that software development is very much not an exact science.
Programs are complex and there are so many different ways of achieving the same thing that all code has problems and gets a bit messy in places. You can test, but it's not easy to ensure that everything works the way it should.
The best code you're going to get will probably be in the space industry, but even that will have bugs. The best you can do is make the code robust even when bugs make things go wrong.
In many cases copilot will do just as well as a junior developer. It's very good at repetitive tasks and filling gaps in your existing code.
It's more like you get some kind of weird construction multitool that promises to be a level, a drill, a hammer, and a dozen other things, and it turns out to be a really good, innovative, and helpful level... and a really bad everything else.