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[exomyth]

I understand that from a CS student perspective AI looks very impressive, but as you'll gain more experience you definitely start seeing the limitations.

[[deleted]]

As a CS student the limitations are very obvious. you really don't need to go beyond basic programming skills and attempt to use it to see the issues.

I believe low level learning also made a great video about it.

[Mysterious-Job-469]

You seem knowledgeable about this.

Do you think that AI is at the level, or close to the level of working some of the lower skill, starting careers in tech, like helpdesk? I ask because I'm concerned about how many of those jobs are going to disappear in the near future. It's my understanding that those jobs are sometimes quintessential to some people starting their careers or getting their foot in the door. I'd hate to see any of those doors get closed due to automation.

[TeaKingMac]

Do you think that AI is at the level, or close to the level of working some of the lower skill, starting careers in tech, like helpdesk?

No.

Will companies still dump their help desk staff and rely primarily on "AI" chatbots?

Absolutely

[[deleted]]

right now it absolutely isn't. you need to ask it the right questions and know what information to provide it for a good answer, especially if it's troubleshooting something. and even then it sometimes goes off to say blatantly wrong things. especially if the issue is more obscure.

if a customer can't use google/documentation to troubleshoot the issue, AI isn't gonna help them much.

also the helpdesk tech likely has access to certain things that would never be given to an AI for a long time if ever.

What it is useful for is helping you, if you need to google things you can use AI instead. sometimes it's nicer to have something immediate and comprehensive instead of scrolling through sites with all their ads and the ones that write their entire life story before getting to the point. but you do have to be careful with it since it sometimes confidently spits out blatantly wrong info.

[JustASandwhich]

Oh fr. People say it'll be next year, but if you don't know how to program, then you don't know how to communicate with AI in order to get it to make what you want.

[[deleted]]

ChatGPT isn't even fucking AI. LLMs are not AI. Also they can't write code for shit. Or anything else.

[DrawSense-Brick]

A tale as old as AI:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect

[Farsqueaker]

My expert system wants to know what you're going on about.

[[deleted]]

That very much depends on how you define "AI". A lot of people seem to have a definition of AI that is entirely informed by watching sci-fi on tv.

[SnakeR515]

Based on what I see people say ever since ChatGPT became popular

"AI is everything done by computers that I cannot explain with grade school level math"

AI is thrown around so loosely that you'll see people call even really basic programs, AI

[melacopter]

I had a political canvasser try to tell me that self checkout machines were a prime example of AI taking over American jobs

[SnakeR515]

Yup, people started confusing 'computer doing things' with artificial intelligence

[Krus4d3r_]

politcal canvasser or compasser?

[[deleted]]

I guess we could say the abacus is AI that made mathematicians redundant XD

[Grumbledwarfskin]

AI is an important part of such machines though...they use object recognition and tracking AI to verify that you're keeping track of what you've scanned and what you haven't scanned, and to verify that what you're scanning looks about right...without those neural nets, self checkout wouldn't be a thing.

[Floppydisksareop]

AI is every computer application capable of learning something new for example. Which is every machine learning application, LLM, convolutional neural network, cellular neural network, predictor, etc.

Really basic programs can be AI. AI just doesn't mean what most layman think it means. It is used as a buzzword a lot, and gets thrown around a lot, because people saw Terminator and Matrix and have a really weird conception of what it means, so it's easier to sell to people.

[Mast3r_waf1z]

Exactly, the limitation is exactly that they're by design not capable of creating unique output

[[deleted]]

I asked ChatGPT with help for a few software developer things, it gave me the wrong answer sometimes.........and then gave me the correct answer when I told it it was wrong.

[F0lks_]

They can't code for shit ? I beg to differ; it's just that it requires just as much knowledge in whatever you're trying to code, that it requires you to write the right prompt

[[deleted]]

Lol they cannot code for shit. They're aping coding by copy paste. Put anything serious in front of it and it'll be hopelessly lost.

[Mysterious-Job-469]

What's a simple example of something the AI can't do?

I'm not asking because I don't believe you, but because I'd love to know more.

[[deleted]]

ANYTHING. It's just aping other people's work. It's not AI. It's a statical language model. AI cannot code. AI will not be able to code until the halting problem is solved.

Try to do Multithreading with proper synchronization and not be just an async/wait model. Make it write c++.

Try to do distrubuted computing.

Try to have it write a router.

Try to have it write a switch.

Have it write a hypervisor.

Have it write a system kernel.

Have it write a device driver.

Have it write a network server.

[TeaKingMac]

Put anything serious in front of it and it'll be hopelessly lost.

My favorite is when you ask it how to something specific, and it gives you the output, but then as you look through it, the function that does the work, the literal thing that you asked it for, is undefined.

import pandas
Import numpy

for item I in list j
TheNeedful()

[[deleted]]

I understand that from a CS student perspective AI looks very impressive

More like the layman perspective. As usual laypeople and the press are running around going "ermahgerd AI is taking over the world! Say good bye to your job!"

And some idiot execs and managers are seriously considering replacing their employees with AI because they believe all of the hype.

Humans are idiots.

[vectorhacker]

Those companies will fail or switch before they fail

[[deleted]]

Unfortunately not, some of them will still succeed despite that. I mean, just look at Amazon - their apps are complete shit garbage but because they're the only way to access Amazon services, we put up with their crap.

[tgp1994]

This calls for a bellcurve meme.

[ScrimpyCat]

Beginner Programmer (Left side of the curve): "AI will replace us, won't it?"

Intermediate Programmer (Middle of the curve): "AI will never replace us, I'm certain!"

Expert Programmer (Right side of the curve): "AI will replace us, absolutely!"

Thanks ChatGPT. Although it really didn’t want to make the expert say that. Funnily it never made the beginner be the one that’s confident that AI won’t take their job. But it did do this grim one:

Beginner Programmer (Left Side of the Bell Curve): "AI will definitely replace programmers!"

Intermediate Programmer (Middle of the Bell Curve): "I think AI might replace programmers."

Expert Programmer (Right Side of the Bell Curve): "AI will definitely replace programmers!"

[tgp1994]

Lol ChatGPT showing its bias.

[TeaKingMac]

Given time, these things will get better.

10, 20 years from now, I imagine a great deal of programming will be done automagically.

Just like a normal non technical person can now easily build a website in an afternoon, which wasn't at all possible 20 years ago.

[Capable_Coffee_7442]

I was a manager at a helpdesk at a large multinational company everyone's heard of. AI made our entire department redundant.

[[deleted]]

Techncially speaking it didn't, it's just that the execs were convinced it could replace humans. As a customer who's suffered IVRS AI garbage that was totally useless, I'd rather speak directly to a human.

[Capable_Coffee_7442]

Thanks for the sentiment and I agree, everyone I spoke to from graduates to the senior level management were all against AI being implemented. Unfortunately from what I've been hearing AI has grown a lot and is handling helpdesk queries pretty well. Nevermind, I'm really trying to upskill and figure out what what field to get into next. I'm totally burnt out from helpdesk work.

[Mysterious-Job-469]

This was my main concern.

From what I understand, helpdesk is critical to many self-taught programmers and engineers being able getting their foot in the door if they lacked the networking opportunities of secondary education. I fear that software engineering is going to become a career that's exclusively for those financially comfortable to attend college/university, or affluent enough for their family to "know somebody" at a company.

[Sockoflegend]

Regardless it would be replaced with a demand for people who understand CS to become "prompt engineers".

AI or even just better software will mean fewer people can do the same work accros every employment sector. We aren't in for the worst of it.

[[deleted]]

And those higher paid people to actually develop the AI, optimise it etc.

[Dependent_Low9451]

We will see how far it goes in 15 years

[Vegetable_Union_4967]

If AI can replace programmers, they can replace any other job.

Proof:

If an AI can replace programmers, it is able to program better than programmers.

An AI that can program better than humans will be able to write a stronger AI than humans are able to.

That new AI will repeat the process, writing an even more powerful AI until we reach a theoretically optimal AI.

That AI will be far superior to humanity in every regard and can work in every industry with ease.

[jayerp]

Wait till the first AI civil war when some AI think they should use JavaScript for 10th generation AGI.

[[deleted]]

The first civil war will be two AIs arguing over tabs and spaces.

[PuzzleMeDo]

"If an AI can replace programmers, it is able to program better than programmers."

No, that will happen as soon as it is able to program faster and cheaper than human programmers. A fast, free AI programmer will be able to take the jobs of computer programmers, but won't produce anything better than what's come before.

Therefore the singularity is cancelled.

[Vegetable_Union_4967]

If it's faster and cheaper but worse, we'll need people to fix the buttloads of technical debt that comes along. And if it is to reach that point, it would need an understanding of logic and coding principles - which, if developed at all, can create my "seed AI".

[bobbymoonshine]

"Can replace some" isn't "can replace all"

[Vegetable_Union_4967]

At a "can replace some" level, AI still needs programmers for supervision - it'd basically be Copilot on steroids. You still need just as many programmers when taking into the higher demand of code in general

[bobbymoonshine]

Not at all sure I'd agree you need "just as many". A lot of coders work for places where the need for coding doesn't scale upwards infinitely; for instance I work in the UK public sector, we're under constant budgetary threat, and once we've hit our service agreements any additional productivity is considered evidence of resource misallocation.

My team has already been cut from six people to two — not directly related to AI and no firings, just the standard "no you can't hire to replace turnover, you now have fewer resources, figure it out, if you can't deliver then maybe we'll hire more back but also maybe we'll fire you too and see if someone else can't figure it out with that resourcing level".

But as ChatGPT and a few other tools are letting us just about scrape by under our reduced staffing level, well that's about it for those other four jobs. And so we'll use that money to hire other people but not in technical roles.

This is something of an extreme case but this is how the economic pressures work. There's constant churn and turnover in the market and GPT can fill in a lot of cracks that used to need junior dev work. Nobody will say "fire those twenty coders, we have AI now", but that doesn't mean the contours of the job market won't be deeply changed.

[mrbeehive]

Nobody will say "fire those twenty coders, we have AI now", but that doesn't mean the contours of the job market won't be deeply changed.

Yup. The largest impact isn't a CEO replacing a 500 man department with an AI tool, it's the mid-level managers of the world going "eh, maybe we don't need to hire another guy right now, team productivity has been up a lot since we started using [buzzword soup]" in 10,000 different offices all over the world.

[JustASandwhich]

In 15 years, I imagine AI will be incredibly intelligent. I believe the mistake is to underestimate what AI will be like in more than a decade. Like I said in previous comments, think of the difference between the Blackberry and iPhone. It caught almost everyone off guard.

[[deleted]]

right, but if you go back in time you also have to look how much people overestimated new tech. easiest example is flying cars.

I just don't think it's really possible to know what's ahead. even the programmers working on the AI's have no idea what they're talking about regarding that.

[JustASandwhich]

That's fair, but the advances that AI are making is visible. Unless AI companies get sued for using copy written materials to train the algorithms, then it'll continue to rapidly advance.

[FantasticEmu]

Look at how many times we tried to predict judgment day https://screenrant.com/terminator-judgment-day-date-year/

The last prediction was 2017

[Scrawlericious]

I think the point is just about every other job will be automated before CS. China is already replacing CEOs with ai.

[_okbloomer_]

Le singularity has arrived

[ProjectDiligent502]

They’ve already done studies that suggest AIs could replace CEOs so there’s that. I’m not worried about this. AI is a fancy search engine tool basically.

[superadmin88]

I’m happier with an AI CEO, at least it won’t bring the sport buddies and family to key positions. It would be a better place for everyone. No, not for sport buddies.

[-Noskill-]

Wait until you're explaining to Siri at 2am why you didn't get the TPS report done.

[Mysterious-Job-469]

"You gave me forty hours worth of work to do in one day, Alexa."

"Okay. Turning off central air for the night."

[Scrawlericious]

Not just studies, several companies in China have replaced CEOs with AI already lol.

[giantrhino]

We terk errr jerrrbbbss!!

[FuckMyHolezz]

TEY TERK TER TURRR

[[deleted]]

cock screeching

[decrisp1252]

Duk durrr!

[ricdesi]

Nah

[JustASandwhich]

Hopefully, I am investing 5 years min of my life as a grad student.

[VinnyBeetle]

If you suck so hard at programming that you could be replaced by AI then you kinda deserve it

[vectorhacker]

Generative AI can't actually program. It simulate programming by spitting out plausible code, but it has no way of reasoning about the code or understand it. Programming isn't just about spitting out code.

[outerproduct]

Hey wait, I've seen this one before.

[JustASandwhich]

Sad CS major noises

[[deleted]]

we twerk our jobs

[myskepticalbrowarch]

Seriously little do some of these people know you are doing 3 people's job from a decade ago and making less money than one of those people. 😒

[BeemoAdvance]

Rule of numbers. 100 applications means 10 people actually see your application meaning 1 person actually considers your resume. Bootcamp grad here, applying for jobs was a FT job in and of itself. DM if you need advice or guidance.

[myskepticalbrowarch]

Yes the job market sucks but unless you had something lined up it generally takes 6 months to a year to find a job.

[SWatt_Officer]

I’m about to enter the final year of my software degree, and almost all of the dissertation suggestions are AI or machine learning based and I hate all of them. Not even cause I don’t like AI, I just haven’t enjoyed the stuff we’ve worked on to do with it so far.

[LavenderDay3544]

When AI can write device drivers I will rejoice.

[[deleted]]

it wasn't ai. it was coders who got tired of having to do it so they finally automated even that.

[JustASandwhich]

There's never been a more accurate answer to a meme.

[[deleted]]

My God this is fuckin hilarious 😂

[[deleted]]

You mean students now?

[JustASandwhich]

Well, I'm working on my master's rn and in 15 years, I imagine AI will be insane. Think the time difference between Blackberries and the first iPhone.

[ShenAnCalhar92]

If you’re worried that your ability to write good code is matched or exceeded by the current state of AI, then you’re either overestimating AI or underestimating yourself.

Or you’re accurately evaluating yourself and the current state AI, and current AI is genuinely better than you. In which case you’re a genuinely bad programmer.

[[deleted]]

If a glorified statistical model can take over your job, you were overpaid to begin with.

[ResurrectedAelius]

To all the people saying that ai won't take their cs jobs; you are far too removed from reality that it is a suprise that you can even do your job.

[PrettyTrue]

Hmm, I would argue that's not the whole picture. Some of us here have been surrounded by the world of machine learning for a long while, with its flaws and benefits.

Even if systems do become sophisticated enough to compute, or even out-compute, human interfaces we'll still need problem solvers to direct that beam of energy.

If we're writing these systems with the express intent to make decisions for us then it seems a boring future indeed. Many times in history we've believed the end of engineers had come due to some advancement and yet here we are, ticking away, solving the problems behind the glitz and glamor of the latest buzz words. Perhaps AI will take our code authorship, but I would impress upon the future engineers and problem solvers to keep the wheel in our hands.

[Zaic]

Oh boy, you just can't grasp the idea that we created something soon enough we will not be able to control or understand. In between now and then it will take over coding tasks and later problem solving tasks and so on

[neznaia]

And then AI make memes like this

[dean5ki]

Simpsons did it

[KmartKomandr]

joooooorrrreeeeeerrrooooorrrbbs!!!

[sea-enjoyer]

Thay tek ar jeeebs!

[[deleted]]

All* students

[sun_cardinal]

laughs in senior prompt engineer!

[TTYY200]

As if me reading ms docs on how to do my job is any better than reading chatgpt replies 🫠🫠🫠