August 24th, 2024

Ask HN: Will Copilot-like AI make smaller programming languages smaller?

AI tools like Copilot and Cursor are creating a self-reinforcing cycle where increased usage enhances collective knowledge, improving functionality and attracting more developers, benefiting the programming community overall.

The emergence of AI-powered tools like Copilot and Cursor is anticipated to create a self-reinforcing cycle driven by network effects. As more developers utilize Copilot, they contribute to a collective knowledge base that expands with each interaction. This growing dataset enhances the Copilot experience, making it more effective for developers. Consequently, the improved functionality of Copilot is likely to attract even more users, fostering a virtuous cycle of growth and enhancement in the tool's capabilities. This cycle not only benefits individual developers but also enriches the overall programming community by providing a more robust and efficient resource for coding assistance.

- The use of Copilot by more developers enhances the collective knowledge base.

- A richer dataset from user interactions leads to improved Copilot experiences.

- Increased effectiveness of Copilot is expected to attract more users.

- The cycle promotes growth and improvement within the programming community.

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4 comments

By @tc4v - 8 months

This seems unlikely because LLMs don't produce high quality code, they produce average code. So they don't contribute to a better dataset, they contribute to a narrower dataset around the average. LLM tend to self poison, not to self improve. There is a good chance it already started because of the huge amount of chatgpt code that was put on github since 2021. Maybe if the LLM authors use some quality filter to discard 80%of the dataset it can be avoided.

By @sitkack - 8 months

They don't need that much data.

They operate in a higher dimensional space.

You can fine-tune a model trained on JS/Python and teach it Lua with little issue. If you have a proper rosetta for your language to a language that is well represented in the training corpus, it isn't an issue.

By @VirusNewbie - 8 months

I was wondering if you could go the other way, could the statistical knowledge of what most people want when they type XYZ mean we could use it to design more powerful languages that are even less verbose.

I don't really know but I hope someone answers this question!

By @mikewarot - 8 months

I've been avoiding trying out CoPilot with Pascal code because I believe this to be true.

Perhaps it's time to challenge that assumption.

Ask HN: Will Copilot-like AI make smaller programming languages smaller?

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