What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a powerful language model developed by OpenAI that has the ability to understand and respond to natural language inputs. It has the ability to generate well articulated human-like responses to many questions asked by users.
One main capability of ChatGPT that interests us at CodeMode is the capability to analyse code or even come up with code solutions. What does that mean?
Can ChatGPT replace developers?
Despite ChatGPT being able to come up with code solutions, it doesn’t always get it right. ChatGPT is not capable of making decisions or solving problems on its own. It’s simply a language model that generates text based responses base on inputs it receives. It does not have the ability to analyse data, make logical decisions, or take actions. This is where a developer excels compared to an AI such as ChatGPT.
So how can it help a developer?
Developers (including myself) regularly search for code snippets online; in places like Google, Stack-Overflow, other forums, etc. This is especially the case for developers that work with many programming languages on a regular basis. It usually takes time to scroll through discussion threads, understand the context and extracting out the necessary snippets to fit our needs.
This is where ChatGPT can help a developer; we can simply ask ChatGPT to come up with code snippets by explaining partial (or full) technical problems.
ChatGPT on it’s own cannot come up with a solution, we need to provide the necessary context and inputs to get the correct responses. Once we have a response, it still requires an experienced developer to validate the solution that was provided.
In conclusion, ChatGPT can be an extremely useful tool for developers in their day-to-day work, but it’s not going to replace developers. Instead, it can be considered as a Virtual Assistant with some technical knowledge that would help reduce our repetitive tasks and give us more time to focus on solving more complex and interesting problems.
Expert opinion
ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool and is not here to replace developers. Instead, developers should utilise it for their day-to-day tasks, especially the boring repetitive tasks. It’s also very important to validate that the responses generated by ChatGPT and not blinding accept responses as they aren’t always correct. Think of it as a virtual assistant helping you solve problems.
— Prageeth Silva
