Some people seem to think writing a C compiler is hard work. Well, yes, if you’re writing it in assembly language, it is. But I hate to break it to you: Computer science undergraduates write C compilers every semester. Heck, you can learn to do it yourself thanks to Daniel McCarthy’s Developing a C Compiler From Scratch online class. And the class will cost you a lot less than the $20,000 it cost Anthropic.
I feel it is a bit impressive, how it’s able to write coherent code. And larger code bases and make the puzzle pieces align. That’s some achievement, I guess? But it’s the same issue as always. We keep proving AI can reproduce existing things. Do mashups and recombine. Within tight constraints.
We do not, however, see it create or invent new things. I mean why not use $20k to develop something useful, which isn’t already there? Like a modern successor to E-Mail? That’d be badly needed. A great showcase of reasoning abilities… Useful…
I think because it can’t do it. And I’m not sure if that’s just a performance issue. It’s like evolving from a Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V Stackoverflow programmer to a proper one. But that’s not easy. It takes years of study. And takes developing a solid understanding of what you’re doing, plus intelligence. And maybe coding agents won’t just automatically transform into that. Despite the claims.
(Edit: Strg -> Ctrl)
German QWERTZ user spotted
Right, thanks… I inadvertently looked down at my fingers and that’s what they key said… Guess “Steuerung” isn’t really an English word, though. I have more weird ones, for some reason there’s a Windows logo pretty much right next to it.
That’s not the weirdest German keybard https://feddit.org/comment/9013552