Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of this revolutionary AI called ChatGPT. ChatGPT is everywhere. Even young kids know about it. It’s made by the company named OpenAI, the same company that made Dall-E, a text-to-image AI art generator that’s winning the hearts of everyone.
ChatGPT is a chatbot that is the most advanced AI ever to exist. You can have normal conversations with it, it can explain complex topics to you, you can ask it to write essays for your school assignments, and the most amazing part, it can generate lines of code for you.
Wait What? It can generate codes for you?
Its ability to write codes created a wave of restlessness in the software industry.
Programmers are concerned about their jobs and have different doubts about them.
Here are some questions that have been on the mind of every programmer:
- Do programmers have a future?
- Will programmers become obsolete?
- Is Software Engineering dead?
- Has ChatGPT killed Programming?
- Will ChatGP replace programmers?
- Will Programmers be needed in the Future?
In this article, we’ll discuss how capable this ChatBot is. The chances of ChatGPT Replacing Programmers, and how we can ensure that we are not being replaced.
What is ChatGPT, and How Powerful is it?
It is a language model based on GPT-3, which uses highly complex machine-learning algorithms. It responds to human text and generates human-like text by understanding natural language.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot that has been designed to understand different software languages. ChatGPT is trained on natural processing language and can understand and communicate with developers to help them write lines of code, find errors, and solve bugs in their code.
ChatGPT is improving day by day, and developers behind it are quite confident that it will eventually replace programmers.
ChatGPT has been able to successfully help developers debug their code in JavaScript and Python. It’s still in the training process, and it’s been trained on understanding other languages like Java and C++.
The best part, ChatGPT is getting better with every passing day, so it could potentially revolutionize the way softwares are developed and will also pave the way to make programming accessible to the average person.
The Question: Will ChatGPT Replace Programmers?
ChatGPT can write lines of code for you only if you describe precisely what you exactly want. Now, who’s gonna write that description, if you think that anyone can do so, then you might be mistaken.
Let’s check out this real-life case study when somebody actually made a program using ChatGPT, named HomeKit Voice Assistant.
Here’s the prompt that he used to achieve this:
Now, do you think it’s basic English language? Absolutely not!
It’s no less than a code, and only programmers will be able to write this prompt.
A non-programmer wouldn’t be able to write this specification.
In a nutshell, ChatGPT is an effective way of writing codes, but programmers and still involved.
So, ChatGPT won’t replace programmers but rather help them to write codes faster.
Here’s what people think about it.
Example: Code for a Facebook Clone App
Write me a code for a clone of Facebook.
Now, how on earth can a non-programmer tell if it’s legit or not? What are the errors? And What adjustments should be made?
Programming is not just typing lines of code, it is a skill set that involves critical thinking and problem-solving.
ChatGPT can not replace programmers, Period.
Before ChatGPT, Many no-code builders were revolving in the market, but none of them succeeded in replacing programmers.
Need more reasons to believe that ChatGPT cannot replace programmers?
Let’s ask ChatGPT if it can replace programmers or not.
ChatGPT is revolutionizing the way programmers work, helping them work efficiently and reducing work hours.
It has already started.
GitHub Copilot allows developers to use ChatGPT to improve their code and find bugs. Someone has created a Visual Studio Code Extention that works with ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is here to help, not to compete.
Let’s see some use cases of ChatGPT for programmers.
How ChatGPT Can Help Boost Your Productivity?
ChatGPT is not here to replace programmers, it’s a blessing in disguise. It can reduce the workload of programmers and can assist in writing long lines of code, which frees up time for programmers to focus on critical tasks.
Here are some ways you can leverage ChatGPT as a programmer.
1. Explaining Code
Code explanations can be daunting to look at sometimes. That’s when ChatGPT comes to the rescue. Copy the code you want to understand and ask ChatGPT to give you an explanation for that.
I pasted some lines of code in the ChatGPT and asked it to explain it to me.
Here’s what ChatGPT explained.
It has broken down all the steps. It looks like a great explanation.
Now, only the programmer can tell whether it’s legit or not.
2. Improving Existing Code
If you are stuck in your code and want to do some specific things in the code.
Ask ChatGPT to improve the code and explain what you are trying to accomplish in the code. ChatGPT will improve your code and give you instructions on achieving your desired outcome.
Let’s suppose this is my desired outcome, but I don’t know how to do it.
Here’s what ChatGPT said:
Not only did it give me the code, but also the explanation.
3. Simplifying Code
Complex-written code can make your eyes teary just by looking at it. Ask ChatGPT to simplify your complex code.
Here I asked ChatGPT to simplify this code.
And here’s the results.It’s a great way to simplify your code and make it more readable.
4. Translating code
There are so many programming languages, but with ChatGPT, you can translate code from one language to another. So, no need to write the code all over again.
Just use ChatGPT.
5. Writing Documentation
If you are a programmer who loves coding but hates writing documentation, let ChatGPT do it for you.
Ask ChatGPT to write documentation for a piece of code, and it will also add relevant examples in the documentation.
Ask ChatGPT it to write documentation, and you’re done!
6. Tracking down bugs
It usually takes forever to find a bug, but ChatGPT makes it easy.
Ask ChatGPT to help you out. It will take a few seconds to find a bug and explain it to you with an example.
I gave it a code with a bug and asked it to solve it.
Now, you don’t need to spend hours and hours finding and solving bugs. Let ChatGPT do it for you.
What are the ChatGPT’s Limitations
While working on ChatGPT, you can do achieve anything you want. But, it has some limitations.
Wrong Answers
ChatGPT got released a couple of months ago and is still undergoing through a training process to improve the accuracy of their answers.
It has not undergone through extensive training yet and is likely to produce wrong answers at times.
Another limitation is that its model has been trained on data available before 2020, so it is completely unfamiliar with the latest things happening worldwide.
In addition, many programmers have reported that it writes faulty codes with bugs and provides with wrong solutions.
Stackflow, which is a question-answer website for programmers, recently banned ChatGPT. They said that ChatGPT provides inaccurate answers, which is not good for the reputation of their website.
Training Data Limitations and Bias Issues
Like any other AI model, ChatGPT has its own limitations in its training data. These limitations can have a negative impact on the output. Therefore, it is important to improve the transparency of model data to combat the bias of this technology.
Sustainability
Many people are talking about how many graphics processing units (GPUs) are needed to run ChatGPT. ChatGPT is expensive to run, to say the least. ChatGPT is free to use for everyone, so there are a lot of speculations about how sustainable the technology is in the long run.
Now, the question is, how do we fight back?
Well, if we take the interview side, the answer is simple, you need to do in-person interviews. Programmers solely dependent on ChatGPT won’t be able to ace the interviews. Hence only deserving people will land the job.
But in the grand scheme of things, I don’t see the need to fight this beast because it can make people more significant at their jobs and help them be more time efficient and creative.
At the end of the day, AI is nothing but Data, which is created by humans. The more creative the data is, the better AI.
Conclusion
No doubt, Artificial Intelligence is becoming exceptionally powerful day by day. However, the question” will chatgpt replace programmers” is obsolete. It can help humans with simple problems, allowing them to focus on more complex issues.
At this point, ChatGPT is not going to cause any significant disruption in any field of technology, especially software engineering. There will always be certain tasks that only developers can perform that machines will never be able to do
Found that helpful? Get similar posts and other exclusive AI information that we only share with our email subscribers?
Subscribe to our email to get lightning fast AI information right to your Inbox Button
Table of Contents
Thanks for Reading!
Naima is a skilled and experienced content writer, with a passion for creating high-quality, well-researched articles and blog posts. With her strong writing skills and attention to detail, Naima is able to craft engaging and informative content that resonates with readers.
In addition to her work as a content writer, Naima is also highly interested in technology and artificial intelligence and is always looking for ways to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in these fields.
