Microsoft Research Developing An AI To Put Coders Out of a Job (mspoweruser.com)

jmcbain writes: Are you a software programmer who voted in a recent Slashdot poll that a robot/AI would never take your job? Unfortunately, you're wrong. Microsoft, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, is developing such an AI. This software "can turn your descriptions into working code in seconds," reports MSPoweruser. "Called DeepCoder, the software can take requirements by the developer, search through a massive database of code snippets and deliver working code in seconds, a significant advance in the state of the art in program synthesis." New Scientist describes program synthesis as "creating new programs by piecing together lines of code taken from existing software -- just like a programmer might. Given a list of inputs and outputs for each code fragment, DeepCoder learned which pieces of code were needed to achieve the desired result overall." The original research paper can be read here.

Comments

Who is this "Al"

[OzPeter]

Who is this "Al" and why does he keep trying to put everyone out of work? It seems like the best thing for the economy^w Human race would be to find Al and order a drone strike on him.

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And before all you ACs leap to eviscerate me for my inscrutable post, consider your glyphs.

dealing with the human element

[sheramil]

have you ever seen any of those hilarious blogs by artists and graphic designers who undertake commissions from people ignorant of, well, it seems ignorant of everything? the sort of people who ask you to take a full color photo of the finished work and fax it to them and then complain that they can't load it into microsoft word? "No, that blue is the wrong blue, we wanted a different blue. I don't know! A different blue to that one!"

automated software production? this. times a million.

That is great.

[vyvepe]

I'm looking forward when Microsoft uses this AI to code Windows OS.
It will be also the time when Linux will finally take over desktop :)

Re:Kill the H1b visa people

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget we need to build a 2000-mile wall on the Mexican border, and stop all Muslims from entering the country.

Taking those tough but common sense steps will protect your job from automation.

Don't worry

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Changing requirements aren't a problem. All you need is to define a language where they can be specified precisely, and hire someone who can translate your real world requirements into that language. Once you've got those, you can still do away with programmers because the new magic code generation tools will do everything else for you.