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[DISCUSS] IBM using LLMs to convert COBOL to Java (techcrunch.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It's not the 1st time a language/tool will be lost to the annals of the job market, eg VB6 or FoxPro. Though previously all such cases used to happen gradually, giving most people enough time to adapt to the changes.

I wonder what's it going to be like this time now that the machine, w/ the help of humans of course, can accomplish an otherwise multi-month risky corporate project much faster? What happens to all those COBOL developer jobs?

Pray share your thoughts, esp if you're a COBOL professional and have more context around the implication of this announcement 🙏

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If even highly skilled humans couldn't do that, artificial pseudointelligence doesn't stand a chance in hell.

There's nothing of substance here. Just suits chasing buzzwords. Nothing will actually happen, just like nothing actually happened every other time some fancy new programming language or methodology came along and tried to replace COBOL, including Java.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is what I don't get. Rewriting COBOL code into Java code is dead easy. You could teach a junior dev COBOL (assuming this hasn't been banned under the Geneva Convention yet) and have them spitting out Java code in weeks for a lot cheaper.

The problem isn't converting COBOL code to Java code. The problem is converting COBOL code to Java code so that it cannot ever possibly have even the most minute difference or bug under any possible circumstances ever. Even the tiniest tiniest little "oh well that's just a silly little thing" bug could cost billions of dollars in the financial world. That's why you need to pay COBOL experts millions of dollars to manage your COBOL code.

I don't understand what person looked at this problem and said "You know what never does anything wrong or makes any mistake ever? Generative AI"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Ooh good point

What if IBM had a product that did the COBOL->Java conversion (no what if tbh, believe it exists), then just changed the marketing material to make it seem flashy?

So like, you think it’s Ai but really it’s the same grammar translation functions that have been around for ever.