Will ChatGPT Replace Developers?

Munib Butt

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ChatGPTChatGPT Replace Developers

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Mahesh Chand3y ago
Great discussion. YES the quality of the code is going down each year and thanks to 4 weeks code academies and bootcamps. Anyone who learn JavaScript thinks he/she can build a software. While ChatGPT will not replace developer, it can definitely help speed things up in learning process. It is quite impressive when write basic content and I just saw the GPT4 model that is much more powerful than this one. But hey again .. this is just the beginning. Between low-code no-code platforms, and this type of tools, it is possible. Look at Power Platform. It can be used to build quite sophisticated software applications that do not require developers or programmers.
Chris Love3y ago
Agree so much with your observations and position. The code I am seeing from OpenAI is more or less simple. I tell people it is good enough to pass a high school programming assignment. It is not a professional, production-ready piece of code. I do love GitHub CoPilot. It is doing a great job of anticipating the code I would type and is saving a lot of time. Plus it can write unit tests for me and I hate doing that LOL. I love the AI as a tool to make me more productive. I do fear that average people now think they can code without knowing what they are doing. This is why 'planes crash'.

Introduction

For a while now, I have been seeing many articles, blogs, vlogs, and other material on ChatGPT and what it can do. One of the most interesting things I saw was that many people were saying that is has the capacity to write complete code as per provided specifications and hence it would probably replace developers in the future. This sounded alarming as I am a developer and have been for over three decades. Hence, I decided to see what this tool could do.

What ChatGPT can do

I started by signing into the trial version at OPEN AI (https://chat.openai.com/) and asking a few questions related to different technologies and the answers were summarized and quite concise. I also asked a number of questions on other topics like geology, astronomy, history, sports, and anthropology. All answers were good. They were quite similar to what we would find on Google or Bing but were in a summary format.

Then, I tried the coding piece. I asked the bot to write me some snippets in JavaScript and C#. I also refined the results with specific requirements and overall, the results were quite impressive. I also asked for some unit tests, and these were also good.

So, does ChatGPT replace us?

The code snippets were good, but can these be used by a non-technical person to write a complete application. I do not think so. As I saw this new technology summarizes a result whereas current search engines provided references about what we were searching. Could a non-technical person write a complete application using results from Google or Bing search? The answer is No and hence the same situation is for this new technology. However, it can be very helpful for a developer. It can provide sample code snippets. It can point us in the right direction when deciding what library to use for a particular requirement. It can help us with unit tests. It can give us options. However, which option we take, which design pattern we use and how we apply architectural design is still up to us. Hence, it is the developer that will decide how to use ChatGPT and how useful it can be for them.

Summary

I remember back in the early nineties when I was still programming with FoxPro, there was big news that we had a code writer with the new version and now developers would no longer be required. This was helpful in designing menus and simple forms. We just needed to design the form via drag and drop and the code would be generated for us. I tried and also used this in a few of my applications. However, the code written was too complex and very hard to customize. It was also very limited in use and hence was never used much. We must always keep one thing in mind. There will always be tools to help us like code generators, search engines, and the new ChatGPT. However, it is our understanding as developers that will build the application to meet the end user’s needs.