Large Language Models and The End of Programming - CS50 Tech Talk with Dr. Matt Welsh

Dr. Matt Welsh discusses how large language models will shift software development from writing code to natural language instruction.

The field of Computer Science is headed for a major upheaval with the rise of large AI models, such as ChatGPT, that are capable of performing general-purpose reasoning and problem solving. We are headed for a future in which it will no longer be necessary to write computer programs. Rather, I believe that most software will eventually be replaced by AI models that, given an appropriate description of a task, will directly execute that task, without requiring the creation or maintenance of conventional software. In effect, large language models act as a virtual machine that is “programmed” in natural language. This talk will explore the implications of this prediction, drawing on recent research into the cognitive and task execution capabilities of large language models. Matt Welsh is Co-founder and Chief Architect of Fixie.ai, a Seattle-based startup developing a new computational platform with AI at the core. He was previously head of engineering at OctoML, a software engineer at Apple and Xnor.ai, engineering director at Google, and a Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University. He holds a PhD from UC Berkeley. *** This is CS50, Harvard University's introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming. *** HOW TO SUBSCRIBE youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=cs50tv HOW TO TAKE CS50 edX: cs50.edx.org/ Harvard Extension School: cs50.harvard.edu/extension Harvard Summer School: cs50.harvard.edu/summer OpenCourseWare: cs50.harvard.edu/x HOW TO JOIN CS50 COMMUNITIES Discord: discord.gg/cs50 Ed: cs50.harvard.edu/x/ed Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/cs50/ Faceboook Page: facebook.com/cs50/ GitHub: github.com/cs50 Gitter: gitter.im/cs50/x Instagram: instagram.com/cs50 LinkedIn Group: linkedin.com/groups/7437240/ LinkedIn Page: linkedin.com/school/cs50/ Medium: cs50.medium.com/ Quora: quora.com/topic/CS50 Reddit: reddit.com/r/cs50/ Slack: cs50.edx.org/slack Snapchat: snapchat.com/add/cs50 SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/cs50 Stack Exchange: cs50.stackexchange.com/ TikTok: tiktok.com/@cs50 Twitter: twitter.com/cs50 YouTube: youtube.com/cs50 HOW TO FOLLOW DAVID J. MALAN Facebook: facebook.com/dmalan GitHub: github.com/dmalan Instagram: instagram.com/davidjmalan/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/malan/ Quora: quora.com/profile/David-J-Malan TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidjmalan Twitter: twitter.com/davidjmalan *** CS50 SHOP cs50.harvardshop.com/ *** LICENSE CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ David J. Malan cs.harvard.edu/malan malan@harvard.edu