Will Chat GPT Replace Your Job As a Programmer?

Now I know that you must have heard of Chat GPT, you must have heard of all the rantings going on everywhere about how this impressive, futuristic AI is going to be the next big thing, how it’s going to replace a lot of traditional jobs, and how you (as a programmer) should probably find something else to do, as your job will probably not be around for long.

And if you’re like Joe, you are probably as scared and concerned as you could be. I mean… Why should I learn how to code if some smartass software is going to be able to do what I can in a fraction of the time? And under normal circumstances, my answer to this question would be NOT TO, but before you come at me, let me tell you why this question is not as easy to answer.

What’s all this hype about Chat GPT?

The odds are, if you clicked this article, then you probably already know what Chat GPT3 is, and you must’ve already used it. But just in case you have no idea what it is,

ChatGPT is a prototype artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI which specializes in dialogue. The chatbot is a large language model fine-tuned with supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. It is based on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model, an improved version of GPT-3.

In simple words, ChatGPT is an AI chatbot system that OpenAI released in November to test what a very large powerful AI system can accomplish. And let me just tell you now… It can accomplish quite a lot.

Why Should You Care?

I think the better question at the moment would be, Why should you not care? I state it because ChatGPT is shockingly good,

You can ask anything, though you might not get an answer. OpenAI suggests a few categories, like explaining physics, asking for birthday party ideas, and getting programming help.

I asked it to write a poem, and it did, though I don’t think any literature experts would be impressed. I then asked it to make it more exciting, and lo, ChatGPT pumped it up with words like a battlefield, adrenaline, thunder, and adventure.

I recall when I first used it, I instantly felt demotivated to keep learning to code because of how well this software was churning out answers to the technical questions I was throwing at it.

Will it replace my Job?

Now I could keep on going on and on about how amazing this software is, but that isn’t the question on everyone's mind. Seeing how well this software can answer a lot of questions. The million-dollar question would be will it put me out of a job?

My answer to this question would be NO, Why do I say this? Well…

The job of a programmer is not simply writing code, a programmer also has to deal with turning ideas into desired solutions. I find it difficult to believe that this programmer will be able to effectively replicate that million-dollar idea that you have, in the exact way you would want it to be.

Another point I would like to note is that Chat GPT is not all-knowing. ChatGPT can give you wrong answers. Sometimes, helpfully, it’ll specifically warn you of its shortcomings. This is so common that Stack Overflow has banned solutions from the software. It could churn out answers to your questions in a very authoritative manner, but that does not mean that they are always right.

So you should not be so bothered by all the articles, clickbait videos, and memes about how Chat GPT will eventually take your job.

Conclusion

ChatGPT as I have stated at every point is amazing and can be used for a lot of things. The most important way to view it is as a tool, not as a replacement for individuals.

As a developer you could view it as another form of GitHub copilot, that could come in handy when building boilerplate code or something of the like.

Vetting the veracity of ChatGPT answers takes some work because it just gives you some raw text with no links or citations. But it can be useful and in some cases thought provoking. You may not see something directly like ChatGPT in Google search results, but Google has built large language models of its own and uses AI extensively already in search.

So ChatGPT is doubtless showing the way toward our tech future.