Apple Bans Employees From Using ChatGPT Amid Its Own AI Efforts

[Menneisyys2]

"Show me a recursive function in Python." ... I still think books and manuals are more useful in the long term but at least this usage doesn't leak private information and forces you to understand the answer.

AI is mostly for experienced programmers that quickly (!) want to do tedious tasks like for example writing a recursive function. For example, recently, I pasted a for loop (removing everything company-specific ofc) to GPT4 and asked it to make it a recursively-called function. I could have done it myself but why - when AI could do the same instantly, without my having to do anything.

Nevertheless, AI does subtle errors, which only experienced programmers can solve, at least with ease / without excessive Googling. I have experienced these bugs a LOT. This is why it's not really suitable for absolute beginners.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Double edge sword, using AI to do your work.

Yes, screenwriters, graphicians etc. are in major danger. IT folks? Nope - GPT4 can't really write bugfree simple code (nevertheless, in the hands of an experienced programmer able to quickly find out the bugs GPT introed, it does speed things up a LOT), let alone having a broader understanding of entire projects.

 

[Menneisyys2]

What programming are using it for? Anything beyond some react/node is and basic python, it hallucinates non existent libraries and functions.

Swift, iOS, MacOS, Obj-C mostly.

 

[gaximus]

The article title makes it sound like “Apple bans ChatGPT because it’s working on its own AI” when it is really “Apple Bans ChatGPT, because it’s not secure and is worried about IP leaking. Also unrelated Apple is also working on AI Tech”

 

[falainber]

Are Apple employees supposed to use Siri instead?

 

[darngooddesign]

Are Apple employees supposed to use Siri instead?

Apple employees are not supposed to upload confidential data to a public AI which has already been hacked.

Why is this a hard concept?

 

[CarlJ]

What programming are using it for? Anything beyond some react/node is and basic python, it hallucinates non existent libraries and functions.

Yeah, it's goal is to give accurate sounding answers, not accurate answers.

 

[coolfactor]

I’m not sure how Apple can enforce this rule. It’s a super useful program and unfortunately Pandora’s box has been opened.

By establishing rules, there can be clear and concise penalties.

Apple is not saying that ChatGPT is bad or that employees can't use it on their own time, but it can't be used while on-duty, on campus, or while working from home. These tools "learn and adapt" based on input from users, so it's literally impossible to take information out once it has been ingested.

 

[TechnoMonk]

By establishing rules, there can be clear and concise penalties.

Apple is not saying that ChatGPT is bad or that employees can't use it on their own time, but it can't be used while on-duty, on campus, or while working from home. These tools "learn and adapt" based on input from users, so it's literally impossible to take information out once it has been ingested.

Data leaks become huge issues. I wonder what financial institutions are doing with use of GPT.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Yeah, it's goal is to give accurate sounding answers, not accurate answers.

It at least creates the basics of a program - it's some kind of an advanced code generation tool (with its bugs and quirks). Something REALLY missing from Xcode - unlike with Visual Studio.

 

[TechnoMonk]

AI is mostly for experienced programmers that quickly (!) want to do tedious tasks like for example writing a recursive function. For example, recently, I pasted a for loop (removing everything company-specific ofc) to GPT4 and asked it to make it a recursively-called function. I could have done it myself but why - when AI could do the same instantly, without my having to do anything.

Nevertheless, AI does subtle errors, which only experienced programmers can solve, at least with ease / without excessive Googling. I have experienced these bugs a LOT. This is why it's not really suitable for absolute beginners.

Lot of experienced programmers already have common patterns, data structures and operations coded for reuse. Not a big deal, if all it can do is basic patterns, data structures or operations.

 

[TechnoMonk]

Yeah, its goal is to give accurate sounding answers, not accurate answers.

Lot of it is hype. I was building micro services in spring boot the other day. IntelliJ was way better in creating code than chatGPT, which kept apologizing for hallucinating non existent packages,classes and methods.
Micro service Authentication code/configuration was comical to say the least.

 

[mrothroc]

What programming are using it for? Anything beyond some react/node is and basic python, it hallucinates non existent libraries and functions.

I've used it extensively for python (which I don't know) and golang (which I know quite well). Driving it to get good results is definitely a skill. As I've cultivated this skill, my productivity has soared. This article, and the article it links/describes, give a good overview, though at three weeks old it is becoming out of date given the crazy rate of innovation in AI. https://www.oreilly.com/radar/real-world-programming-with-chatgpt/

 

[atomic.flip]

Click bait. This honestly is as plainly obvious as it would be to search for proprietary and trade secrets in google queries and bulletin boards online.

Just an extension of existing information management policies at 99.9% of enterprises.

 

[TechnoMonk]

I've used it extensively for python (which I don't know) and golang (which I know quite well). Driving it to get good results is definitely a skill. As I've cultivated this skill, my productivity has soared. This article, and the article it links/describes, give a good overview, though at three weeks old it is becoming out of date given the crazy rate of innovation in AI. https://www.oreilly.com/radar/real-world-programming-with-chatgpt/

Unfortunately it’s pretty rudimentary for me. I was working on PyTorch 3D libraries and CV. ChatGPT does well for basic python data analysis using pandas, numpy, Scipy, spacey.

 

[Abazigal]

whats next? CAD software? calculators? Not sure if this is the right approach apple. How do you plan to stay competitive in this rapidly changing industry DRIVEN by AI?

By staying true to Apple’s roots of being a design led company. Technology is the ingredient, not the product.

It wouldn’t be the first time Apple has held back from jumping on a bandwagon that ended up going nowhere ultimately.

 

[MacBH928]

Do people seriously use computer AI to do work? surely lots of flaws and errors in there.

 

[falainber]

Apple employees are not supposed to upload confidential data to a public AI which has already been hacked.

Why is this a hard concept?

Are Apple employees so stupid they can't figure out what is and what is not confidential data? Or are all data considered confidential at Apple? Either way Apple employees will be at disadvantage so Apple products will be lagging even more compared to competition.

 

[TechnoMonk]

Are Apple employees so stupid they can't figure out what is and what is not confidential data? Or are all data considered confidential at Apple? Either way Apple employees will be at disadvantage so Apple products will be lagging even more compared to competition.

What disadvantage? Hallucination?

 

[falainber]

What disadvantage? Hallucination?

I hear many experienced software designers use ChatGPT to increase productivity. They use it to generate draft code then fix it if needed.

 

[TechnoMonk]

I hear many experienced software designers use ChatGPT to increase productivity. They use it to generate draft code then fix it if needed.

It’s pretty basic for common patterns, data structures and operations. Anything deeper than that, it hallucinates. Lot of hype not enough depth.

 

[falainber]

It’s pretty basic for common patterns, data structures and operations. Anything deeper than that, it hallucinates. Lot of hype not enough depth.

Common patterns, data structures and operations. What else is there in software design? The vast majority of the code is just about that. Sure there are complex algorithms etc. but that's relatively rare. As a software designer, I have to use Google a lot. If ChatGPT can help, it's worth considering.

 

[montuori]

Do people seriously use computer AI to do work? surely lots of flaws and errors in there.

There are some okay uses, yes; I don't think writing verbatim code is one of them. I think of it a little like wikipedia: it's a good starting point but you'd do well not to believe everything it tells you.

For instance, if I ask "What is the common lisp analog of an erlang map?" I'm told about hash tables (I'd consider this answer to be correct: CL hashes and Erlang maps share most of the characteristics I'd expect in that datastructure). If, on the other hand, I ask almost the same question: "What is the analog of an erlang map in common lisp?" I get a response describing property lists. It's not a bad answer, per se (it could be argued that plists are more idiomatic in CL than hash tables for small numbers of keys and in fact ChatGPT informs me that it's inefficient for plists with many keys). On the other hand, I'm not told that plists can have duplicate keys (neither CL hashes nor Erlang maps can); this could lead to some surprises.

Which is a long way of saying: if I didn't know CL it'd have given me a couple entry points into the documentation (and a couple of nice examples actually). As a programmer I'd still have to use my judgement to implement the correct structure though. I have a couple of take aways from all that: (1) it's usually easier to write code than read code and everything ChatGPT spits out will need close reading and (2) there's going to be a whole lot of poorly implemented -- but valid -- code floating around this time next year.

 

[svish]

Not surprising that companies are doing this

 

[Menneisyys2]

I hear many experienced software designers use ChatGPT to increase productivity. They use it to generate draft code then fix it if needed.

this.