The Drunken Plagiarists
Dear KV, After more than a year of hearing people talk about AI and co-pilots, I finally tried one on a small project. I even paid for the privilege of doing so, figuring that the paid version would be superior to the free one. But what I have found confuses me, and I'm wondering if you too have tried any of these tools. From your previous articles, it seems you might not be focused on the latest tools in our industry. So, maybe you've just continued to use vim and Makefiles. Have you tried these things, and do you have any words of wisdom for the rest of us who are looking at them now?
Dear Co-Piloted, It may shock KV's readers to learn I'm a bit of a tools dweeb, and in fact whenever some new tool comes out that supposedly will help me to create or understand software better, I have been willing to try it. This applies not just to tools but also techniques. I'm even a certified Scrum Master, but that's a story for another time.
I have tried many editors, several IDEs, various debuggers, and all manner of new and interesting tools in my career, and continue to do so. Like you, I had held off on trying the tools based on LLMs and even now continue to throw up in my mouth whenever I'm forced, in conversation, to refer to these as AI. Being able to spit out passable marketing doggerel has about as much in common with intelligence as does an American Presidential election. In fact, those two are clearly, deeply related.
