We asked four AI coding agents to rebuild Minesweeper–the results were explosive

Posted by canucker2016 4 hours ago

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Comment by sixtyj 4 hours ago

One of the comments under the article:

You guys should really start including the helpline number on these articles. As someone who's been coding for my entire life these stories make me feel so depressed and really make me think that I've wasted my life on nothing. I wish I would have built cabinets or just stuck with that retail job.

That says it all.

Comment by nosianu 38 minutes ago

I don't get it. I'm still programming, AI use or not? It's just that I can (finally - when it works) concentrate on the big picture, instead of syntax or API intricacies that I don't really care about. I always formulated my algorithms in human language first anyway, wrote my thoughts what a module should do as a long comment at the top of a module before writing the code.

I once, very long ago, edited an 8 bit word processor written in (Z80) assembly manually to make it run on a newer modle of the (GDR, KC 85/4) computer. I never complained about the loss of control over individual memory cells and registers when switching to higher languages, and I certainly won't complain now. For higher level apps, like everything I need in business.

When having to solve with higher level problems, having to think low-level is a distraction. Being able to concentrate more on higher level architecture and algorithm formulation looks like an improvement to me. I just hope the rate of improvement continues, it's still a bit rough and random. I use it mostly for small tasks, not to write some large code base where the context and hallucination issues really start becoming a problem with current AI.

It is sad if the new tech lets jobs disappear in several fields where current AI is already "good enough", but on the other hand, that's always been the case since the industrial revolution.

Pure software development jobs may be impacted the hardest, from AI and more so from outsourcing. I switched from the IT industry to working for an IT-using company, and I concentrate on solving the concrete business problems using whatever means, instead of programming some software product.

About the article:

I think the chosen example and prompt are very unfortunate. They used a well-known app as basis which has tons of code examples from people who tried their hands on remaking it (see https://github.com/topics/minesweeper).

It would have been much better, albeit a lot more work, to develop something fresh from detailed prompts.