# Initial Thoughts on ChatGPT and Generative AI

## Introduction

[ChatGPT](https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/) and the rise of [generative AI](https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-generative-ai) are trending topics at the moment. Since AI affects developers I figured I'd write a piece about my early reflections on ChatGPT. This blog post will mostly be a stream of consciousness of my thoughts, opinions, and predictions on this topic so take it with a grain of salt 😅 AI and its effects in the workforce are still to be seen but here are my early thoughts.

Let's start at the very beginning...

## 😨 Fear

When I first heard about ChatGPT and watched numerous videos on what it was capable of, I was terrified. That is not hyperbole either. I remember sitting back in my chair and sulking over how AI would take over my job. I felt dejected and that I would be obsolete in five years' time.

[GitHub's Copilot](https://github.com/features/copilot) had caused some anxiety when it was first announced, but this didn't compare to the panic that I felt when I saw ChatGPT work its magic. *"What was the point of trying?"* I thought to myself. This pity party lasted about a week before I snapped out of my funk and realized that I needed to face my fear.

## 🐂 Taking the Bull by the Horns

Instead of avoiding ChatGPT, I decided that I would give it a try for myself. Rather than dodging ChatGPT and trying to act like it didn't exist, I would "take the bull by the horns" and see what the hype was all about.

ChatGPT's conversational aspect is the feature that frightened me the most; however, it was also the part that intrigued me the most. Stack Overflow and Googling for an answer are some of a developer's top choices when it comes to finding answers to pesky bugs or solving a particularly difficult problem, so I was curious if ChatGPT would improve the feedback loop for workflows like this.

Surely it was at least worth a try...

## 🏦 Work, work, work, work, work

<small>*(🎵 kudos to those who get the Rihanna song reference in the title)*</small>

Around the same time that I decided to create an [OpenAI](https://openai.com/about/) account, I was assigned a task at work to build out a chart to display a new finance metric. [Data visualization](https://www.tableau.com/learn/articles/data-visualization) (data viz) is not something that I had previous experience in, so, although it was an exciting task to get to work on, it was also a bit intimidating.

The only thing I really knew about data viz was that [D3](https://d3js.org/) was the de facto library that most people reached for when building charts and graphs. I also remembered hearing that D3 had a bit of a steep learning curve. ***Sigh*** 😔 With no prior knowledge of data viz and somewhat of a deadline on when I needed to complete this task, I crammed hours of Frontend Masters courses at 2x speed into my brain.

After my crash course, I was now able to read D3 code a bit better than before, but writing it was a different story. I looked through numerous D3 examples with charts that resembled the one I needed to build, but the examples were so complex that I had a hard time adapting them to my use case. If only I could see a simplified example of a chart similar to the one I needed to create, then I could take that sample and tweak it to match my requirements.

If only I could generate an example...

## 🤖 Chatting with Robots

I was faced with a challenging task, so I figured this was as good a time as any to utilize ChatGPT. I had tinkered around ChatGPT a little beforehand, mainly asking it a few basic prompts, but nothing too serious. Finally confronted with a real problem, I was curious if it could help me get unstuck.

![Prompt and response after asking ChatGPT to render a bar chart](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676346323431/e530a150-5122-4507-a549-b1d3ea8ee771.png align="center")

The first couple of prompts I produced didn't yield promising results. The charts either looked wonky or fell apart once I modified the data it accepted. Eventually, I realized that the prompts you provide ChatGPT take some finessing. I needed to be less vague and more specific about what I wanted.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676347219664/6c78edc8-2805-4a65-af9b-10231475baa4.png align="center")

After some trial and error, I was finally able to get a stacked, bar chart that I could work with, albeit an ugly bar chart that didn't meet the design requirements by any stretch of the imagination. It was a starting point though! I was confident that once I had a code example that I could wrap my head around I would be off to the races and surely enough that was the case.

Once I learned that I could import the [d3-shape](https://github.com/d3/d3-shape) package and leverage [stacks](https://github.com/d3/d3-shape#stacks) to help with generating the chart, then I was able to move on to ask other prompts about how to set up the tick marks along the x-axis and even have it explain the code it provided.

![ChatGPT explanation of generated code](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676347109045/6a55d1e2-2f08-4ce9-b25b-0ac6f77c0c66.png align="center")

This back and forth of taking the simplified code example and breaking it down into smaller pieces that I could consult with ChatGPT about continued until I was able to successfully build the chart and complete the task. I still wrote a majority of the code myself but being able to ask ***how to approach*** a particular problem in D3 for my specific use case was immensely helpful.

> It was at this point that I realized ChatGPT wasn't so scary after all. In fact, I was finding that it made my job a bit easier. I felt more productive and soon found myself reaching for ChatGPT before initiating a Google search.

Talk about a 180. I went from being terrified of ChatGPT and wanting to avoid it to embracing it and incorporating it into my dev workflow. I'm still a bit shocked that I made such a big transition, but overall I'm glad I gave it a try.

## 💭 My Thoughts so Far

Here are some hot takes after using ChatGPT for almost two months:

1. **It's not as scary as I initially thought.**
    
2. **Technologies like ChatGPT will be a tool in a developer's toolbox and help them be more productive.**
    
3. **Conversing with ChatGPT is nuanced and providing the right prompt is key to getting desired results.**
    
4. **Vet the code that is produced.** Some of the code that gets generated is kinda jank, straight-up incorrect, or outdated (like the time it suggested I use floats to position elements in my CSS). Being able to decipher quality vs. not-so-bueno code is crucial.
    
5. **It's only a matter of time before AI tools seamlessly integrate into developers' environments**. I think this will be similar to how IDE's, features like autocomplete and text formatting have weaved themselves into most developers' code editors.
    

## ❓ Will AI Replace Developer Jobs?

This is the controversial question I see pop up all over and it's one that I have been wondering myself. My short and simple answer is: **No, at this point in time, I don't think AI and tools like Chat GPT will replace developer jobs**.

The world of AI and its impact on society is still new so who knows what the future holds. All I can say is after some early exposure to AI tools like ChatGPT I don't think developer jobs are in jeopardy at the moment. However, if the robots ever figure out how to create apps and build projects on their own without prompting, then I think we're screwed 😅. But if it ever reaches that point and AI got that smart, we would have larger problems on our hands.

Anyway, I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that I have no idea what the future holds for AI+ developers. All I know is that right now I'm excited to use tools like ChatGPT to improve my development workflow and move quicker through challenging tasks.

I went from being apprehensive of this tool to looking forward to using it in my daily dev work. I recommend you try it out for yourself to see what workflows it may help improve for you too.

## 👋🏽 El Fin

That's a wrap folks! I'd love to know your opinions on ChatGPT and generative AI in general so feel free to leave a comment.

If you enjoy what you read, feel free to like this article or subscribe to my newsletter, where I write about programming and productivity tips.

As always, thank you for reading, and happy coding!

*P.S. The cover image was AI-generated using* [*DALL-E 2*](https://openai.com/dall-e-2/)*.*