[uberconf 2023] Practical AI Tools for Java Developers

Speaker: Ken Kousen

@kenkousen

For more, see the table of contents


Prompt Engineering

  • Tools are improving fast, might not be needed as job
  • Suggest context (ex: “pretend you are”)
  • Give example of what you want

Chat GPT

  • Free version is GPT 3.5 Turbo (improved performance over original 3.5)
  • $20/month for GPT 4. Can make 25 requests in a three hour block.
  • Have not noticed quality control over plugins.
  • Plugins change rapidly.
  • Apologizes when you correct it.
  • Warning about pasting your company’s code in
  • Trained thru summer 2021
  • Can’t read files on local file system (Bard can). Can read link but doesn’t know it can
  • Often wrong if you ask it about whether can do something. Like talking to toddler; says want thinks want to know.
  • Temperature – tweaks creativity vs precision
  • REST API docs
  • REST API: cookbook has examples
  • Must give credit card to call REST APIs. Pennies are for 1000 tokens (about 750 words). Charged for both input and output words. Also limits on context (amount GPT remembers). Not expensive if don’t use it much. Ken’s bill has been pennies and too low to be sent a bill.
  • REST API JSON response says how many tokens used. Can also see graph when log into account
  • Had it make multiple choice questions on a topic

Chat GPT Code Interpreter

  • Code Interpreter beta feature.
  • Need to explicitly enable under settings.
  • From OpenAI, not third party
  • ex: can convert Groovy to Kotlin DSL for Gradle

DALL-E

  • First popular text to image generation tool
  • A generation behind text/GPT.
  • Stable Diffusion free, but behind on quality
  • Prefers MidJourney, more realistic

Whisper

  • Audio to text
  • Takes audio or video and writes transcription.
  • Free (unless use REST API)
  • Mac Whisper – $20 on time fee for larger models. Good for transcribing videos of talks. Slow first time. After that (including other videos, fast. [caching?]
  • Creates .srt file (Subtitles)

Claude.AI

  • Free beta
  • Only available in US and UK
  • Can hold 100K tokens. ex: can summarize a novel
  • Quality comparable to ChatGPT 3.5, but not as good as 4.0
  • Can upload many file types
  • Harder to get back to previous conversations than ChatGPT. Need to click on “A” icon on top to see them
  • Doesn’t do image

Bard

  • Can upload answers to Google docs on Ken’s personal account, but not business account
  • Used to be able to answer who Venkat is but can’t anymore.

Llama 2

  • Meta announced today
  • Pretrained language model
  • Free unless large company (aka: competitors)

Descript

  • Transcribes and edits video
  • Can give instructions – ex: shorten gaps in video, remove filler words
  • If don’t move around much, will make it look like you are looking at camera
  • Can give text and select a voice. With 30 minute sample, can train on your voice

Canva

  • Can describe presentation want and Canva makes a draft
  • Can choose theme from list of choices
  • Magic eraser – brush over part of image don’t want and replaces with background nearby
  • Beats Sync – line of slide transition to beats of music
  • Magic Write – like GPT 3.5
  • Magic Design – give own image and make presentation around that

GitHub Copilot

  • Virtual pair programmer
  • Plugins for VSCode and IntelliJ
  • If hesitate, suggests code
  • Can’t agree to part of suggestion. Need to accept it all or delete
  • Guesses right a lot because knows what have done before in a training class
  • Always looks plausible because trained on own code. Need to look carefully
  • Next generation is GitHub CopilotX. Only available via wait list. VS Code only at this point, can use for pull requests.
  • GitHub Next – tools in a variety of states – https://githubnext.com. “Visualizing a Codebase” runs as github action to see packages

IntelliJ AI Assistant

  • Not much documentation on how it works. Only one blog post
  • In Ultimate, not Community
  • In beta edition
  • Can highlight code and ask to explain it
  • If don’t like suggestion, can request it suggests something else and get more choices
  • Can write commit message for you
  • Find issues with code when know language well
  • Helps in language know less well because it knows the API/syntax
  • Good for nuisance tasks that would take a lot of time

YouTube Summary

  • Get summary or transcript of video
  • Free
  • Up to 20 minute video

My take

I was doing my interview with the Build Propulsion Lab so was a few minutes late. It was a full room so my seat was on the floor. Luckily, the room had a large aisle so I could sit near the front instead of in the very back! And the carpet was comfy.

As far as Ken’s actual talk, it was great. I liked the overview of a bunch of tools and seeing the REST APIs for calling OpenAI. Great breath of topics and fun examples! I learned a lot including some tools I hadn’t heard of. And some very cool functionality!

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