HACKER Q&A
📣 okareaman

Will AI be able to create a more perfect programming language?


This article prompted me to ask if an AI can produce self-modifying code, wouldn't tend to evolve into a programming language better than any we have now?

https://www-newsweek-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.newsweek...


  👤 mimixco Accepted Answer ✓
IMO, no. ML is about improving the training and results from an existing dataset. No computer will ever be able to make the leap into creating a dataset that never existed; the best it can do is build something from pieces and parts that were already available. In other words, a computer that can play chess cannot teach itself to bake chocolate chip cookies (no ML; no training for that), but a human can.

Language design, in fact the existence of language as we are discussing, is the exclusive domain of humans. It takes humans to invent a new language (See mine: [0]) because only humans can make the leap to something truly new. Computers won't invent programming languages any more than they can paint real paintings or make real music. Computer speech, writing, art, and music can only be made from parts which were curated or defined by people.

[0]https://mimix.io/specs/


👤 tcbasche
> a programming language better than any we have now

This is so purely subjective it makes my head spin. What makes a programming language _better_ than any other? Surely the right tool for the job, and the tool that you have the most knowledge and experience in, is the 'best' programming language.

It just strikes of that 'beginner-programmer' thinking where we latch onto language_x and then proselytise it for no other reason than we are proficient in it, without any self-awareness of our own opinions.


👤 tlb
You have to define "better" better. Usually it's a measure of the productivity of human programmers using it. So languages that match human thought patterns are better. It's not clear that AIs would be good at optimizing for human comprehension.

If AIs are writing code directly, they might work faster with a very different-looking language that would be hard for people to design. So they might evolve something for their own use.


👤 croo
Brainfuck is better than any other programming language. It has only 8 different commands to use ( instead of the much more verbose GO programming language ) and those commands are simple, one character long terms. From now on every code will be simpler and shorter. The benefits are multiple fold - more speed, easier compile optimalizations and for humans this is definetly the easiest language to grasp.

👤 sharemywin
Siri or her cousins will get better and better until there really isn't need for "programming"

You'll just have a conversation. Maybe if your trained in one of those "old programming languages" you might exchange pseudo code to get your point across. or draw out a truth table.


👤 AnimalMuppet
If it does, will it be a more perfect language for humans to use, or just more perfect for AIs?

👤 kleer001
If they do it'll look a heck of a lot like lisp or one of its many flavours.