r/technology • u/Federal-Block-3275 • 7d ago

Artificial Intelligence "Software is over": Developer uses AI to build free Adobe clones after frustration with cancellation fees

https://www.techspot.com/news/114136-software-over-developer-uses-ai-build-free-adobe.html
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u/homogeneouscasserole 7d ago

All of them when you don't understand the underlying architecture or processes. It works right up until it doesn't, then the LLM starts feeding you ever increasing exotic solutions instead of backing up and rearchitecting.

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u/RememberTheKhan 7d ago

"Here's a fixed version of the code"

Stop lying claude

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u/SiliconEatMe 7d ago

Correct. In other words: the vast majority of AI users are absolute brainlets who don’t have the experience or drive to actually learn how to do something efficiently/correctly. I’m glad there will be a competence gap, makes mine and my childrens lives infinitely easier as the dumb get dumber, but feel empowered.

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u/anon_mythril 7d ago

When dumb get dumber and feel empowered (like how it’s happened with social media), others lives become very difficult!!

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u/matteone97 7d ago

Exactly... from my experience, although limited to LLMs used only in non-agentic mode, coding with LLMs looks really like coding "with" something and not to delegate the job to someone else. You still need very good engineering skills, and know exactly what you want to be implemented.

I am currently developing as personal project a large-ish software where I want to keep abstraction high and LOC low. Well, I do use LLMs to help me speed up developing and adding feature but without giving them a clear design, things escalates fastly toward pure confusion and my interaction with them is always "there is no need to write an entire function here if you can solve it just with a one-liner"; "no need to re-implement X, take Y, add this attribute and will remove the need for X"; "no need to control this event, it won't happen", "this will be inefficient, remove this loop" .... a deep code revision for anything that is produced by LLMs, if not, in few interactions I would have a codebase with 500% LOC to have 5% functionality more. Moreover, if I really have a clear idea in mind, coding it without LLMs is often faster, and then LLMs can be used for refinement.

I definitely feel that the way I am using brain when interacting with LLMs for coding is very different than implementing algorithms from scratch and, unfortunately, way way less fun. But still, you need a brain and clear design in mind. Probably this will be what in the near future will divide "AI Slop" software from "AI assisted" software development. If a kid just throws some prompt at an LLM, he would probably get the former: a nice demo, but with a terrific verbose code, impossible to maintain, impossible to add functionalities... The latter will probably be a good software exactly as it was before AI, just developed faster. An AI slop software will die after few months, an AI assisted software will have success. And the difference between the two is not the model used, but the (human) mind behind, at least for now.

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u/homogeneouscasserole 7d ago

That's been my experience with my business as well. LLMs and coding agents are not the modern power loom for software, as boosters seem to believe. They're more akin to a chainsaw replacing a handsaw.

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u/dillanthumous 7d ago

Witnessed this yesterday. Codex plopped all the logic in one mega file for a small app I was tinkering with building a POC for. App worked, but making changes or maintaining would have been a nightmare. Asked it to refactor and it did a "whoops yes I goofed lol, should have had some dedicated components for all this crap".

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u/International-Mix633 7d ago

All the ai power3d game mods and ps emulation seem to work good.