Using Xcode's AI Is Like Pair Programming With A Monkey

I've never used any other AI "assistant," although I've talked with those who have, most of whom are not very positive. My experience using Xcode's AI is that it occasionally offers a line of code that works, but you mostly get junk suggestions.

When it does something right, it's like the proverbial blind chicken finding a kernel of corn.

Oh boy, mixed animal metaphors.

Seriously, it's mostly useless and even irritating. I keep hoping it will learn my codebase and become a brilliant co-programmer. Instead, it offers code that doesn't compile, wants to add digits to every number I type, uses frameworks that make no sense in command line applications (I generate imagery for my art), and even when it randomly figures out a common pattern, it also randomly forgets it. The most maddening activity is when it tries to offer code completion it often adds inappropriate code that I have to manually backspace over or maneuver through a menu to get what I want (basically what was there before).

Because my art generation has many options, and the UI is just code (I'm a programmer; code is fine!), I have many boolean variables. If I have one set to "false," select that word, then type a "t," what do you think the most common replacement would be? It must be "Truchet" (a struct)! No, it's "true". Somehow, such a common suggestion is lost on the AI. I always have to type the whole word.

Perhaps the AI in Xcode is not intended for anything other than SwiftUI or common UIKit apps. Using it in an application without any familiar UI-related classes may not be a suggested use. I can understand that; I wish Apple would clarify what the AI is good for. It's like hiring a random person with no interview and expecting them to be useful (this happened to me during the dotcom era when management hired some guy who didn't know how to program and expected me to bill him 40 hours a week writing code).

You could argue that AI is still in its infancy, and it will magically get better with time and eventually replace me altogether. I don't believe today's AI will ever be that good, and in a future post (if I stop procrastinating), I will discuss that in more detail.

You could also say Apple's AI is terrible; I won't argue. Today, everyone needs an AI to be relevant. No one said it had to be good.

Meanwhile, I will invest in some bananas; perhaps the AI will improve if I offer bribes.