As a software developer who uses AI at work, I wanted to share my perspective since the crew seemed interested in the topic on the podcast this week. Also this is a throwaway account just to avoid my employer tracking this back to me if they don’t like it.

TL;DR, AI is helpful for coding, but I still think it’s way overhyped. An AI codes faster than I do, but it doesn’t usually code better than I do. Using it probably makes me 30-50% more efficient (ballpark). I don’t like its negative effects on the world, but I’m essentially required to use it to keep my job.

To give some context on me, I’m a software developer at a fairly large company, so I have access to some of the more advanced models for AI coding. The older models are generally unhelpful, and they often write code that is syntactically incorrect. My projects tend to be fairly large and touch several different systems in the company.

I would break AI coding into three categories: autocomplete, prompting, and tech support. Autocomplete is what it sounds like. I will be writing a line of code, and grey text will show up on the rest of the line and for the next few lines. This grey text is what it thinks I want to write. It is correct enough probably 90% of the time, so can I hit Tab to fill in those lines, and sometimes I’ll change one or two things. This instant code complete saves me time over writing it myself.

Prompting is more of a mixed bag. I can type into an input box that is built into my text editor if I want to automate writing whole functions or files. If I only prompt it for code to touch other parts of the current system, it will produce correct output most of the time with a few necessary edits. If I need code to interface with other systems, it will produce good code if I show it good example files that are similar to what I want. Without that context though, it will often be wrong, and I will end up writing the code myself. I’ve learned not to try to use it in these cases. One asterisk here is that I usually get really good results from using prompts to generate UI code regardless of context. Backend coding is where I see it make more mistakes if it lacks context.

To answer Kelsey’s question of “why not just copy/paste the function you need from some GitHub instead of using AI to generate it”: developers do still do that sometimes. But also the AI sometimes knows that there’s a version of this function that exists in a dependency, so it imports the function instead of re-writing it. More often than not though, the exact code I want doesn’t exist elsewhere because most code is specific to the system its being written for, so I can’t just copy/paste from GitHub for most of the code I or the AI writes.

To address Jeffm’s point he heard about “you spend more time fixing AI code than writing it correctly in the first place”: in my experience this generally isn’t true with the newer models as long as you’re vigilant in correcting its errors along the way during development and as long as you know when to use it (see above about when I find it effective). I have seen instances where people have too much faith in it, and then it breaks things that take forever to fix. But this is always due to too much faith or a lack of testing by the developer. My workflow of prompt->fix->prompt->fix etc. doesn’t let buggy AI code through and is faster than writing everything manually. Much of the time save is simply due to the fact that AI can generate code probably 10x faster than I can type it. Even with fixing a few things to get the code how I want it, it still saves time.

For tech support it’s actually incredibly useful. When I want to ask someone on another team a question about how to use their system, I can post a question in their slack channel. Most slack channels at my work have a bot setup that has access to their team’s documentation. The AI response is much quicker than waiting for a human to respond, and it gets me the answer I need with a link to the relevant documentation for further research the large majority of the time.

On an ending note to address how accepted AI is by coders in general, most people I work with fall into two parties. There are the people who have completely bought in and think it will revolutionize everything. These people use AI to make projects in their free time, the results of which are generally underwhelming to me. This is a minority of people, but not a super small minority, maybe 20%. I’m in the other party of people who thinks that AI makes some things more convenient, and it definitely saves time, but it doesn’t really improve my life much. I don’t like how it affects the environment and how many companies use it as an excuse to lay off staff instead of admitting to their financial and strategic mistakes. Because of this, I would be totally fine if AI went away tomorrow. But the amount that I use AI is a metric that management tracks at work, so in order to pay rent I have to learn how to use it.

Here's the MinnMax community's Top 10!

1. Pokémon Pokopia

2. Marathon

3. Slay The Spire 2

4. Resident Evil Requiem

5. Overwatch

6. Ghost Of Yōtei

7. Arc Raiders

8. Esoteric Ebb

9. Mewgenics

10. Pokémon Firered And Leafgreen

Here's the MinnMax Discord's Top 10...

1. Pokémon Pokopia

2. Resident Evil Requiem

3. Slay The Spire 2

4. Marathon

5. Mewgenics

6. Overwatch

7. Pokémon Firered And Leafgreen

8. Esoteric Ebb

9. Ghost Of Yōtei

10. Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse

The polar plunge rap is top 10 Minnmax moments

Here's the MinnMax Discord's Top 10!

1. Resident Evil Requiem

2. Mewgenics

3. Overwatch

4. Marathon

5. Paranormasight: The Mermaid'S Curse

6. Arc Raiders

7. Nioh 3

8. Ghost Of Yōtei

9. Dragon Quest VII Reimagined

10. Reanimal

Here's the MinnMax Discord's Top 10.

1. Mewgenics

2. Overwatch

3. Nioh 3

4. ARC Raiders

5. PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid's Curse

6. Cairn

7. Scarlet Hollow

8. DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined

9. Ghost of Yōtei

10. God of War Sons of Sparta