The world of technology and software development is rapidly evolving. With the development of artificial intelligence, discussions and concerns have arisen about the possibility of replacing programmers and developers with AI.
The language model on the lips of many these days is Chat GPT, created by OpenAI.
While there are benefits to using Chat GPT, there are also concerns about its ability to replace programmers and developers. In this article, we will look at the features and limitations of Chat GPT. And we will discuss whether it can replace human programmers and developers.
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Chat GPT Can Replace Programmers and Developers?
Today we are looking for answers to various questions on the Internet. Let’s ask ChatGPT a question.
What Chat GPT Replied
I could end the article here, but since ChatGPT is known to make mistakes, I decided to ask the opinion of our old friend Google. After all, it is the largest search engine.
According to Google
When I ask “Can Chat GPT replace programmers and developers”, it looks like Google doesn’t have enough answers for my specific question (also check Chat GPT vs Google Search). A significant number of articles that rank between the first and 20th positions answer the question “Will Chat GPT…”. In my opinion, there is a difference between “may” and “will”.
We now face the difficult task of deciding who is a reliable source of information. We must think critically and look for evidence and facts.
After reading most of the articles, I can conclude that no one should be afraid for their work. But it would be nice to dig deeper.
Concerns of Software Developers
One of the main concerns with using Chat GPT in programming and development is the potential loss of jobs for programmers and developers. As ChatGPT becomes more advanced, there may be concerns that it may eventually replace human coders and render them obsolete.
Another issue is the accuracy and reliability of the output generated by Chat GPT. While language models such as ChatGPT have shown impressive results in producing human-like text, there is still a risk of generating incorrect or low-quality code if the model is not properly trained or if the input is malformed.
Moreover, using Chat GPT in programming can lead to a lack of creativity in the software development process because the model relies on previously generated text rather than original ideas.
This raises the question of whether AI will replace writers and developers in the same way that robots and computers have replaced some assembly line workers.
Can Chat GPT replace programmers and developers? Guarantees for people
So, can Chat GPT replace programmers and developers? First, we need to learn what skills Chat GPT needs to join the IT industry.
Skills that developers and programmers need
Programmers and designers or software developers need the following skills:
- A good foundation in basic math, science, and logic.
- The ability to solve problems, whether in the conceptual or debug phase of computer programming.
- The ability to “think outside the box” at any stage.
- Perseverance and patience to try new solutions when needed.
- Attention to detail during coding and debugging.
- Communication Skills: Programmers must create programs for a variety of industries and needs. That’s why it’s important to be able to communicate effectively and understand the intended purpose of the software they create and the requirements of the users.
Does Chat GPT have these skills?
Let’s start by learning the basic understanding of math in ChatGPT. It looks like the Open AI team is constantly working on improving ChatGPT. Math questions that ChatGPT couldn’t answer correctly two weeks ago now give correct answers. But he still makes mistakes. Look at the following question:
Question:
The distance between point A to point B is 100 miles.
A red car travels at a speed of 80 miles per hour from point A to point B.
A green car travels at a speed of 60 miles per hour from point B to point A.
Both cars start traveling at the same time.
Which car will arrive first to point A? And explain why. And here is ChatGPT’s answer:
The green car will arrive first at point A.
We can use the formula:
time = distance / speed
To calculate the time it takes for each car to travel from their respective starting points to the other point.
For the red car, the time it takes to travel from A to B is:
time = distance / speed = 100 / 80 = 1.25 hours
For the green car, the time it takes to travel from B to A is:
time = distance / speed = 100 / 60 = 1.67 hours
Since the green car takes longer to travel the same distance, it might seem like it would arrive later. However, it's important to remember that the green car is actually starting its journey after the red car has already started.
Therefore, we need to add the time it takes for the red car to travel from A to B to the time it takes for the green car to travel from B to A to determine when they will meet.
The total time it takes for the green car to reach point A is:
time = time for red car + time for green car = 1.25 + 1.67 = 2.92 hours
The total time it takes for the red car to reach point A is:
time = time for green car + time for red car = 1.67 + 1.25 = 2.92 hours
Since both cars take the same amount of time to travel the entire distance, the green car will arrive at point A first as it has been traveling for a longer period of time than the red car.ChatGPT jumps right into the math without understanding or paying attention to the details. (I submitted feedback about the issue to Chat GPT. It would be interesting to see when Open AI fixes the issue.)
Although I don’t code right now, I do have some experience with Python and Django. But this is not enough to judge the possibilities of ChatGPT in the field of code generation. So I had to do a little research and here are the results.
- Stack Overflow is a community space for finding and suggesting answers to technical questions and is one of the most popular websites in the world. At the moment it does not accept answers generated by GPT or ChatGPT: “In general, because the average rate of getting correct answers from ChatGPT is too low.”
- “ChatGPT is NOT the future of programming (I’m not impressed).” This is from a video on a Youtube channel that has 164,000 subscribers. In my opinion, the channel is respectable enough to be considered a reliable benchmark. And the title says it all – nothing more needs to be added.
- “Learning to code with ChatGPT is a HUGE mistake…” from the second Youtube channel with 60,000 subscribers.
- Cornell University has a “Categorical archive of ChatGPT Failures“. Among the listed categories we can find mathematics and programming. The archive was last updated on February 19, 2023.
Conclusion
Here are my final thoughts on whether Chat GPT can replace programmers and developers.
Let’s not forget that ChatGPT is just an intelligent robot. It uses algorithms to parse text and communicate with people, and does a good job of it. A huge number of templates, from books to program code, shaped his thinking. As a result, he may even write some code. This code is not original; this is the code that was given to him during his training (ChatGPT scanned almost the entire Internet).
When answering Task 1 above, ChatGPT seems to be missing something – logic or critical thinking skills. At the same time, he could become a victim of an internal mechanism called “Attention”. When certain inputs are more important than others in a particular case, the model can learn which inputs deserve more attention.
I don’t know what ChatGPT will be able to do in three or ten years. But for now, ChatGPT, as the chatbot admitted, cannot replace a programmer. As a tool, it can only perform low-level tasks.
It seems that at this stage, no programmer or software developer should worry about their job. But I would encourage them to learn how to use ChatGPT to their advantage.
