Microsoft is using AI to replace all their C/C++ code with Rust by 2030. Is that actually possible? What could go wrong? Microsoft’s strategy relies on a new "North Star" metric: 1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code. 😱
Rust is good, but this approach seems incredibly difficult. Given the risk of AI hallucinations, aiming for a million lines of code per developer feels like an 'Apollo-program' level of difficulty and an excessive task 😱
@nixCraft If it was actually intelligent, it would delete a million lines of Microsoft code every month, not create them. Probably without losing any functionality either
@nixCraft well let me not send you screenshots again.
@nixCraft And that about wraps it up for Microsoft. Linux anyone.
@nixCraft Reminds e of the 1980s when I worked at IBM in the UK when they wanted to implement in code the equivalent of 6 sigma failure levels in manufacturing - they actually wanted 1 fault max per billion or so lines of code - forgetting that code is unique whereas production lines are repetitive. They swiftly dropped the idea.
@nixCraft 1 million lines of code per month is over 32k per day including weekends. May as well just say their strategy is giving up on doing code reviews.
@nixCraft wow how nice 😆
@nixCraft my most productive day ever as an engineer was when I *deleted* ~20_000 lines. Reducing complexity and code size is (usually) hard. Be careful what you measure, Microsoft
@nixCraft so they're no longer doing the "all code is a liability" thing, eh?
RE: https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/115767245843883385
@nixCraft so they are replacing potential memory safety issues with logic bugs... and since the AI will probably use unsafe anyway, get new memory safety issues.
@nixCraft then they'll be looking for guys to debug the resulting crap
@nixCraft this is going to fail like most if not all automatic language conversions.
Switching from one language to another is not only about replacing syntax and making it achieve the same output.
It usually is also about different language paradigms - things should be done differently in a different language to actually use the strengths of that new language.
If you are not doing that you will have a codebase that feels wrong, alien and is hard to maintain. No benefit in switching at all.
@nixCraft This could just be the one thing that makes Windows 11 look good.
@nixCraft open position for an IC5. east asian always in demand, lol
@nixCraft ..."replace all their C/C++ code with Rust..."
Will there be code left?
🤔
@nixCraft don’t worry, they are now using Linux. Windows are for others… :)
Many similar projects failed within months when big banks tried to replace COBOL with modern stacks like Java. Even today, IBM is working hard to promote AI use cases for translating massive legacy codebases to modern alternatives, yet there are very few takers because banking or financial institutions are highly regulated and losing people’s money is a significant risk and bad press waiting to happen.
@nixCraft
In addition, the purpose of converting to a modern language is to reduce code maintenance costs, but automatic code translation often generates code that works, but is significantly harder to understand and thus to maintain, than the original. If IBM, or any company, has solved this problem, they've been remarkably quiet about it.
@nixCraft i think this has Potential honestly. To be the defining Moment in history when the ai bubble bursts
@nixCraft what's that you say? There was a boom economy in the 80s? it created bajillions out of thin air? made a bunch of people financially secure for life, with assets that just keep on growing and growing?
Fascinating. and you want to inspect the code do you? simply fascinating.
You know, i was just about to make a nice cup of tea. would you like some?
This continued obsession with AI and removing human talent while daydreaming about crazy ideas despite knowing the limitations of the tools is the craziest corporate culture I’ve seen so far… 😅
@nixCraft instead of using it as a tool, like a carpenter with an electric drill, it has become something like the hand of god ✋. People without any domain knowledge think it can replace the 🧠 professional with experience.
@nixCraft Not just corporate. I personally know a bunch of philosophers who use the Cat, I Farted** AI on a regular (daily?? 😱) basis and don't see the disconnect between the concept "philosophy* and the reality that they're letting a machine "think" for them.
Not to mention the medical pros who are using AI to summarize patients' history and delineate treatment plans.
The mind boggles -- and not in a good way.
@nixCraft The world would be a much better place if techbros just took an occasional nap in their $500k beds instead of pushing every single one of their 3am cokehead ideas.
@nixCraft No worries their code will be borrowed away by rust
@nixCraft Time for a new term - AI Derangement Syndrome. Acronym? AIDS.
@nixCraft AI doesn't hallucinate - it confabulates.
https://nazzal.substack.com/p/ai-does-not-hallucinate-it-confabulates
https://deanmarc.com/2024/10/31/ai-systems-as-of-now-never-hallucinate-they-confabulate/
@nixCraft i dont get why anybody belives anything they say anymore after that whole "we're gonna take security super serious" blogpost after the crowdstrike incident, wherein they abjectly ignored it right after and had a long string of horrible security fuckups.
