I don't think you've used it.
I used it intensely and mostly autonomously (with clear instructions, including how to measure good output) almost non-stop over the holidays. Its a new abstraction for programming -- it doesn't replace software developers, it gives them a more natural way to describe what they want.
> none of this is going to improve people's lives.
I have some old borderline senile relatives writting apps (asking LLMs to write for it them) for their own personal use. Stuff they surely haven't done on their own (or had the energy to do). Their extent of programming background - shitty VBScript macros for excel.
It also helps people to pick up programming and helps with the initial push of getting started. Getting over the initial hump, getting something on the screen so to speak.
Most things people want from their computers are simple shit that LLMs usually manage quite well.
Good question whether or not this (outsourcing their thinking) actually just accelerates their senility or not.
As someone who likes to solve hard or interesting technical problems, I've long before LLMs often been disappointed that most of the time what people want from programmers is simple stupid shit (ie. stuff i dont find interesting to work on).
More than half. What has anyone written that was truly new? Regardless, if you have an idea, you will build it out of some combination of conditionals, loops, and expressions… turns out agents are pretty good at those things, even when the idea you’re expressing is novel.
This is a natural response to software enshittification. You can hardly find an iOS app that is not plagued by ads, subscriptions, or hostile data collection. Now you can have your own small utilities that can work for you. This sort of personal software might be very valuable in the world where you are expected to pay 5$ to click any button.
Yeah sure but have you considered that the actual cost of running these models is actually much greater than whatever cost you might be shelling out for the ad-free apps? You're talking to someone who hates the slopification and enshittification of everything, so you don't need to convince me about that. However, everything I've seen described in the replies to my initial comment - while cute, and potentially helpful on a case-by-case basis, does NOT warrant the amount of resources we are pouring into AI right now. Not even fucking close. It'll all come crashing down, taxpayers the world over will be caught with the bag in their hands, and for what? So that we can all have a less robust version of an app that already exists but that has the colours we want and the button where we want it?
If AI cost nothing and wasn't absolutely decimating our economy, I'd find what you've shared cute. However, we are putting literally all of our eggs, and the next generation's eggs, and the one after that, AND the one after that, into this one thing, which, I'm sorry, is so far away from everything that keeps on being promised to us that I can't help but feel extremely depressed.
At this point it doesn't matter that much whether we use AI or not, the apps are not selling and they are being produced at an alarming rate.
The projects being submitted to product hunt is 4x the year before.
The market is shrinking rapidly because now more people make their own apps.
Even making a typo and landing on a website, there is good chance its selling more ai snake oil, yet none of these apps are feature complete and easily beaten by apps made by guys in 2010s. (tldr & sketchbook for the drawing space).
Only way to excite the investors is to fake the ARR by giving free trials and sell before the recurring event occurs.
You are attempting to move the goalposts. There are two different points in this debate:
1) Modern LLMs are an inflection point for coding.
2) The current LLM ecosystem is unsustainable.
This submission discussion is only about #1, which #2 does not invalidate. Even if the ecosystem crashes, then open-source LLMs that leverage the same tricks Opus 4.5 does will just be used instead.
Don't be curmudgeonly. Thoughtful criticism is fine, but please don't be rigidly or generically negative.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I don't think you've used it. I used it intensely and mostly autonomously (with clear instructions, including how to measure good output) almost non-stop over the holidays. Its a new abstraction for programming -- it doesn't replace software developers, it gives them a more natural way to describe what they want.
> none of this is going to improve people's lives.
I have some old borderline senile relatives writting apps (asking LLMs to write for it them) for their own personal use. Stuff they surely haven't done on their own (or had the energy to do). Their extent of programming background - shitty VBScript macros for excel.
It also helps people to pick up programming and helps with the initial push of getting started. Getting over the initial hump, getting something on the screen so to speak.
Most things people want from their computers are simple shit that LLMs usually manage quite well.
Good question whether or not this (outsourcing their thinking) actually just accelerates their senility or not.
As someone who likes to solve hard or interesting technical problems, I've long before LLMs often been disappointed that most of the time what people want from programmers is simple stupid shit (ie. stuff i dont find interesting to work on).
> Re-building things that most probably already exist, simply with your own little special flavour?
That describes half of the current unicorn startups nowadays.
More than half. What has anyone written that was truly new? Regardless, if you have an idea, you will build it out of some combination of conditionals, loops, and expressions… turns out agents are pretty good at those things, even when the idea you’re expressing is novel.
This is a natural response to software enshittification. You can hardly find an iOS app that is not plagued by ads, subscriptions, or hostile data collection. Now you can have your own small utilities that can work for you. This sort of personal software might be very valuable in the world where you are expected to pay 5$ to click any button.
Yeah sure but have you considered that the actual cost of running these models is actually much greater than whatever cost you might be shelling out for the ad-free apps? You're talking to someone who hates the slopification and enshittification of everything, so you don't need to convince me about that. However, everything I've seen described in the replies to my initial comment - while cute, and potentially helpful on a case-by-case basis, does NOT warrant the amount of resources we are pouring into AI right now. Not even fucking close. It'll all come crashing down, taxpayers the world over will be caught with the bag in their hands, and for what? So that we can all have a less robust version of an app that already exists but that has the colours we want and the button where we want it?
If AI cost nothing and wasn't absolutely decimating our economy, I'd find what you've shared cute. However, we are putting literally all of our eggs, and the next generation's eggs, and the one after that, AND the one after that, into this one thing, which, I'm sorry, is so far away from everything that keeps on being promised to us that I can't help but feel extremely depressed.
At this point it doesn't matter that much whether we use AI or not, the apps are not selling and they are being produced at an alarming rate.
The projects being submitted to product hunt is 4x the year before.
The market is shrinking rapidly because now more people make their own apps.
Even making a typo and landing on a website, there is good chance its selling more ai snake oil, yet none of these apps are feature complete and easily beaten by apps made by guys in 2010s. (tldr & sketchbook for the drawing space).
Only way to excite the investors is to fake the ARR by giving free trials and sell before the recurring event occurs.
You are attempting to move the goalposts. There are two different points in this debate:
1) Modern LLMs are an inflection point for coding.
2) The current LLM ecosystem is unsustainable.
This submission discussion is only about #1, which #2 does not invalidate. Even if the ecosystem crashes, then open-source LLMs that leverage the same tricks Opus 4.5 does will just be used instead.
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[flagged]
When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html