Limor Fried’s code is often a de facto standard, and now ChatGPT is using it #Adafruit #ChatGPT #AI @IEEESpectrum @Ladyada
Limor Fried is the founder of Adafruit, a leading electronics manufacturer for makers. The open-source microcontroller driver libraries she writes to interface with devices such as sensors and displays often become de facto standards and are found in many code repositories. Recently, Fried began experimenting with ChatGPT to generate drivers and discovered that the AI was writing in her own particular style. IEEE Spectrumasked her five questions about working with a machine that’s trying to imitate her.
How did you discover that ChatGTP had a mini Limor Fried inside?
Limor Fried: We had seen videos of people using ChatGPT saying, “Okay, I want to write a microcontroller program that blinks LEDs,” and I’d be like, “Oh my God, that chunk of code is a me-ism.” There’s these little things that I do that I copy and paste between every example
Are you concerned about whether using ChatGPT will lock you into your current style?
Fried: That’s a good question. I think that if we do more abstraction layers, I would probably think like, “There are humans who still write drivers, but how can I make sure that this is something that an AI can do as well?” I do tell people who do coding, “Never have ChatGPT write code that you couldn’t write.” I tell people to think of it as a very positive and enthusiastic 15-year-old Redditor. She’s got a lot of energy, and she can follow your instructions, but she doesn’t have a lot of world experience.
Limor Fried is the founder of Adafruit Industries, a New York City–based leading manufacturer of hardware for makers and electronics enthusiasts. Fried designs many of the products herself and is prominent in the open-source hardware community.
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