Better than human (sometimes)

Posted Oct 20, 2025 2:14 UTC (Mon) by gmatht (subscriber, #58961)
In reply to: Define “prompt” by Baughn
Parent article: The FSF considers large language models

While LLMs can produce rubbish, sometimes they can do a better job than me.

Like all C programmers, I can write C in any language. Sometimes when I start writing C in Python the LLM will offer to complete my involved algorithm with a 2 line pythonic solution. Also the LLM's initial draft of a UI looks nicer than the functional but plain version I would call v1.0.

I seem to recall a quote saying something along the lines of: I will always write better code than a compiler/LLM, because I can use a compiler/LLM.

The biggest weakness of LLMs seems to be that it is not possible to reach v1 with vibe coding because once the code base reaches a certain level of quality the LLM will become more interested in adding new bugs than fixing old ones. For example, it will find a polished algorithm and observe that the tests only cover several values so it can simplify the algorithm by just hardcoding those values and still "pass".