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80% of developers find AI coding more addictive than helpful (www.zdnet.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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A new Coddy Developer Survey found that four in five developers, 80%, say their use of AI has felt more like a dependence than an advantage.

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[–] 21 points 2 months ago (12 children)

25year swe here. If AI disappeared tomorrow I'd "Oh no... anyways" in 2 seconds. AI's a nice tool, it provides slight value. I'd miss it like I miss auto formatting or integrated terminals in IDEs, not really a big deal.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (10 children)

    I'd miss it a bit. Not a coder by any stretch of the imagination, just scripter, and honestly AI has become a search engine and a quick answer machine and it's ridiculous people pretending that it's useless.

    Is it evil? Yes. Does it enrich billionaire oligarchs? Yes. Should we stop using it? Yes.

    But you can't pretend it's not useful.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    honestly AI has become a search engine and a quick answer machine

    This might be the best use for it. The Amazon AI review summary and Google search summary have been very helpful. The google search summary is often useful in that it let's me know that there probably isn't an answer on the Internet for a question that won't take days of scouring to find.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (4 children)

    I repeat myself but, and this might even sound elitist, but if you're an academic, you will have exponentially greater use of AI than if you ain't.

    You get what you put. So if you put effort and know how to communicate and know coding and know what's going on, you're gonna have a better time than if you don't. But still, that said, you have to be very careful because it is so comforting, humans are very susceptible to praise and flattery, we want to be lured in, we let ourselves be fooled, like a magic trick.

    If you know it's happening you have some defense, imagine all the people who don't and get lost. but I suppose that's the danger with anything really. Make sure you don't get screwed over, as best you can. Sorry for rambling, I have a lot of thoughts on many matters, and I think it's important that we talk about these things so we can figure it out together.

    That's how I feel right now and that's that!

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    I tell folks to take what it tells you with a grain of salt because you can get it to agree with you no matter what, eventually. It will also confidently give you answers even if your question was vague or missing important specifications.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    100%. And it's dangerous as fuck. I am very aware, I dedicated my whole life to communicating through text, with computers, with humans, with myself, I studied philosophy and cognition and language and semiotics and computing and coding, so I'm at a tremendous advantage, and I have noticed that I have started talking a bit more like AI over the past few years.

    Like, lie with dogs, get fleas.

    Imagine if they decided that they will adjust the morality of the AI, to, let's say, just be a little bit more favorable towards the concept of "white genocide" in South Africa, and the global effects you could see in sentiment. You think Facebook is bad? In ten years we are going to have a seriously big fucking problem with a handful of people truly controlling what people think. They already do, but this one is a game changer.

    Sorry for rambling.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Yah, it is generally a glorified search tool.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    A pretty good one. I mean we're running out of them, google isn't very helpful anymore, and DDG is just a frontend...

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    Eh, I've had VERY mixed results. I've had it tell me information that I absolutely knew was wrong, and it did so with great confidence, until I copy and pasted the excerpt from the website and the URL back to it. It then goes, "Oh you're right!" Ughhhh....

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Yeah. Mixed results. Just like an ordinary search. And please note- you knew it was wrong. It is much easier using a tool when you know when it's misbehaving. Sure the level of utility varies from person to person and situation to situation, but there are things I am truly grateful that AI helped me understand, learn, or just spit back at me. It is a very useful tool.

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