RE: AI programming is creepy!
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Collaborating with Copilot means you are training an AI to put you out of a job. Programmers are expensive. If you argue against this point then you argue against any development of, or move towards General AI.
Why do you think Micro$oft bought GitHub? It provides the training dataset for Copilot. Do you think Micro$oft really just simply want to help you out of the goodness of their own heart? Micro$oft has no heart, because it is a corporation, and as such corporations exist for one sole purpose, to make profit. If they can reduce costs for themselves or their customers, they can make more profit.
Humans are incredibly inefficient part of the equation. We see humans being replaced en mass with automation, whether it be through software or physical devices. The writing is on the wall.
BTW this is NOT an anti-capitalist or anti-profit rant. I have run my own businesses for the past 20 years. A good part of that time I worked as a programmer.
My point is, that we must think twice about the convenience of the technology that we use, because there are advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.
Technology will grow and improve regardless if you embrace it. Ai without a doubt will start replacing jobs. Programming likely won’t be any time soon. The likely first job will be something like truck drivers. A massive industry that will drastically improve commerce but equally increase unemployment.
Yes, the march of technology is one thing, but to "actively embrace it" and hurry the demise of your employment is another.
But that march is also dependent upon people using it. The change of technology is dependent upon people and does not happen by itself. By extension, if people become too reliant upon AI, innovation will plateau and stagnate. AI is a complex algorithm. It has no needs of it's own. It is the needs and desires of humans that drive innovation.
Further, AI of any use or power requires vast resources which are owned by a few centralized corporations. It will be in their interest to ensure that said AI does not assist in building competing technologies or companies and their innovations. Once again we will reach a bottle neck of innovation.
It's demise (your unemployment) will come sooner the more that you use these AI assist tools.
Also, what is the licensing status of the code written with this tool? What does the fine print say? Can M$ change the terms and conditions whenever they want, thereby rendering the code produced by it theirs? They are well known for their IP grabs.
It says you own the code when you selected it.
There are however some interesting arguments about how Copilot uses software that has one license, but you may use the code under a different license.
Most of the code I see copilot create is more autocomplete style, rather than writing sections or even functions. Although it can produce larger portions of code and in some cases complete apps like the Tic Tac Toe example.
I feel that this is likely to make programming more efficient rather than obsolete. Once the third stage of AI's are here, it's another story. However, it seems like the current generation is predicting chunks of programming that are non-creative. That is, the programmer still comes up with the intent, the logic, and the algorithm while the AI does some of the more mundane tasks.
Once upon a time, there was a thriving industry of men called scriveners who were mainly hired by lawyers to copy documents out by hand and ensure that they were exact replicas. Now, we have photocopiers and printers. Where are the unhappy, out of work scriveners? Somehow, they found new occupations. I feel that the same will happen here when/if programmers are replaced by AI's. I think it will be a while, though. I base this on my interactions with the AI's we currently have such as text generation AI's. Some seem to think it is miraculous. I am less impressed.