Former Tesla Autopilot Head And Ex-OpenAI Researcher Says 'Programming Is Changing So Fast' That He Cannot Think Of Going Back To Coding Without AI
Andreij Karpathy, former head of Tesla's Autopilot, stated that he prefers AI-assisted programming over traditional coding due to the rapid changes in the programming landscape. He mentioned his current work mainly involves writing in English, reviewing generated code, and a bit of coding. Karpathy emphasized that he cannot imagine going back to 'unassisted' coding, reflecting a broader trend where AI is increasingly automating coding tasks, with industry leaders like Amazon predicting a future where most developers won't even code.
Andrej Karpathy, the former Tesla autopilot head and an ex-OpenAI researcher, has voiced his preference for the rapidly evolving programming landscape assisted by AI, over traditional “unassisted” coding.
What Happened: On Friday, Karpathy said on X, “Programming is changing so fast…I’m trying VS Code Cursor+ Sonnet 3.5 instead ofGitHub Copilot again and Ithink it’s now a netwin.”
He elaborated that his programming work now primarily involves writing English, reviewing and editing generated diffs, and doing a bit of “half-coding.”
This process includes writing the initial part of the code, commenting it for the large language model (LLM) to understand the plan, and then cycling through iterations.
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While Karpathy admitted that he is still acclimatizing to all the features of this new programming approach, he stated, “I basically can’t imagine goingback to ‘unassisted’coding at this point, whichwas the only possibility just~3 years ago.”
Programming is changing so fast… I'm trying VS Code Cursor + Sonnet 3.5 instead of GitHub Copilot again and I think it's now a net win. Just empirically, over the last few days most of my "programming" is now writing English (prompting and then reviewing and editing the…
— Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy) August 24, 2024
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Why It Matters: Karpathy’s comments reflect a broader trend in the tech industry, where AI is increasingly being used to automate coding tasks.
Earlier this month, Amazon Web Services CEO, Matt Garman, predicted that AI could soon dominate coding, stating, “It's possible that most developers are not coding” in the near future.
This prediction seems to be coming true. According toAmazon CEO Andy Jassy, their AI assistant, Amazon Q, has significantly cut down software upgrade times, saving thousands of work hours. The average time to upgrade an application to Java 17 dropped from 50 developer days to just a few hours, thanks to Amazon Q, Jassy revealed.
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Disclaimer:This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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