Why is everyone LYING?

Summary

The speaker expresses skepticism about claims that AI, specifically Claude 3.5, can drastically accelerate app development. They challenge the idea of non-technical individuals becoming tech founders, citing their own experience with AI's limitations in handling complex coding tasks. The conversation also includes a non-technical person's attempt to build a website using AI, which resulted in a basic UI skeleton but failed to implement core functionalities.

Takeaways

• 😲 The speaker expresses disbelief at a tweet by Gary Tan, who praises the speed and efficiency of using a language model for development.
• 🤔 The speaker questions the claims made about the capabilities of language models (LLMs), especially in relation to their ability to speed up development by 10 times.
• 📱 The speaker discusses their own experience with LLMs, stating that they find them inefficient for medium to complex tasks, often wasting time instead of saving it.
• 💻 The speaker challenges the idea that non-technical people can become founders and build tech companies just because of the advancements in LLMs.
• 👀 The speaker mentions a specific example where someone attempted to use an LLM to recreate their website, but the results were far from satisfactory.
• 🛠️ The attempt to recreate the website using an LLM resulted in an incomplete and non-functional UI skeleton, highlighting the limitations of current AI in development tasks.
• 🔄 The speaker points out that the LLM-generated code would need to be rewritten from scratch, negating any time savings that were initially claimed.
• 🤷‍♂️ The speaker expresses confusion at the exaggerated claims made by some about the capabilities of LLMs, especially when their own experience contradicts these claims.
• 👨‍💼 The speaker believes that the bar for being a junior engineer is higher than just copying and pasting code without understanding it.
• 🔧 The speaker suggests that the trivial parts of development, such as UI without many edge cases, can be automated by LLMs, but the more complex parts require human intervention.
• 🚀 The speaker predicts that in 5 years, LLMs will not be able to recreate complex applications without significant human involvement, based on their current capabilities.

Q & A

What was the initial shock the speaker experienced on Twitter?

The speaker was shocked by a tweet from Gary Tan, who expressed amazement at the capabilities of a technical founder using Claude 3.5, claiming it allows for rapid development of app functionalities.

What is Claude 3.5, and what does it claim to offer?

Claude 3.5 is not explicitly defined in the transcript, but it is implied to be a tool or technology that significantly speeds up the development process of technical applications, allowing for faster iteration and implementation of UI components.

What is the speaker's stance on the effectiveness of LLMs for coding?

The speaker is skeptical about the effectiveness of LLMs for complex coding tasks, stating that they have found LLMs to be inefficient for medium difficulty tasks and have not seen the claimed 10x improvement in speed.

What was the general reaction to the original tweet in the comment section?

Initially, the reactions in the comment section were extreme, with people seemingly living in a different universe of understanding regarding the capabilities of LLMs in coding.

What challenge did the speaker put forth regarding non-technical people building tech companies?

The speaker challenged the idea that non-technical people can become founders and build tech companies, expressing disagreement and suggesting that actual coding knowledge is necessary.

What was the response to the speaker's challenge about creating 'n, cod.'?

Many people took the challenge as an opportunity to prove that AI can assist in creating applications. Some disagreed, while others attempted to use AI like Devon AI to create a simple site similar to 'n, cod.'.

What was the outcome of the attempt to create 'n, cod.' using AI?

The attempt resulted in an incomplete and non-functional UI skeleton of the site, with many functionalities missing or incorrectly implemented, indicating that AI did not save time but rather wasted it in this case.

Why did the speaker believe the AI-created component would need to be rewritten?

The speaker believed the component needed to be rewritten because it was incompatible with the original site's functionality and design, and no amount of human intervention could fix it without a complete reimplementation.

What is the speaker's opinion on the current state of AI in replacing junior engineers?

The speaker does not believe that AI has reached the point where it can replace junior engineers, as they believe the bar for entry into big tech companies requires more than just basic coding knowledge.

What does the speaker suggest about the future of AI in software development?

The speaker suggests that in the next five years, AI will not be able to recreate complex applications without significant human intervention, emphasizing the need for developers to improve their skills.

What is the speaker's final sentiment regarding the claims about AI in software development?

The speaker expresses frustration and disagreement with the exaggerated claims about AI's capabilities in software development, feeling as though there is a disconnect in understanding between them and those making such claims.