Comment by datsci_est_2015
3 days ago
To steelman the vibecoders’ perspective, I think the point is that the code is not meant for you to read.
Anyone who has looked at AI art, read AI stories, listened to AI music, or really interacted with AI in any meaningfully critical way would recognize that this was the only predictable result given the current state of AI generated “content”. It’s extremely brittle, and collapses at the smallest bit of scrutiny.
But I guess (to continue steelmanning) the paradigm has shifted entirely. Why do we even need an entire browser for the whole internet? Why can’t we just vibe code a “browser” on demand for each web page we interact with?
I feel gross after writing this.
If it's not meant to be read, and not meant to be run since it doesn't compile and doesn't seem like it's been able to for quite some time, what is this mean to demonstrate?
That agents can write a bunch of code by themselves? We already knew that, and what's even the point of that if the code doesn't work?
I feel like I'm still missing what this entire project and blogpost is about. Is it supposed to be all theoretical or what's the deal?
You and me both, bud. I often feel these days that humanity has never had a more fractured reality, and worse, those fractures are very binary and tribal. I cope by trying to find fundamental truths that are supported by overwhelming evidence rather than focus on speculation.
I guess the fundamental truth that I’m working towards for generative AI is that it appears to have asymptotic performance with respect to recreating whatever it’s trying to recreate. That is, you can throw unlimited computing power and unlimited time at trying to recreate something, but there will still be a missing essence that separates the recreation from the creation. In very small snippets, and for very large compute, there may be reasonable results, but it will never be able to completely replace what can be created in meatspace by meatpeople.
Whether the economics of the tradeoff between “nearly recreated” and “properly created” is net positive is what I think this constant ongoing debate is about. I don’t think it’s ever going to be “it always makes sense to generate content instead of hire someone for this”, but rather a more dirty, “in this case, we should generate content”.
No, but this blogpost is on a whole other level. Usually at least the stuff they showcase at least does something, not shovelware that doesn't compile.
I've had AI write some very nice, readable code, but I make it go one function at a time.
Writing code one function at a time is not the the 100x speed up being hyped all over HN. I also write my code one function at a time, often assisted by various tools, some of them considered “AI”.
Writing code one function at a time is the furthest thing than what is being showcased in TFA.