Back In My Day We Used to Copy Code from Google

AI is the most exciting field right now; you have ChatGPT, which can write code, Dall-E, which can create art, and many other tools that can help in various aspects of game development. Like everyone, it got me wondering, "How will this change my job"?

While researching the new AI tools, I was skeptical of what these tools could do, and I was being sold insane capabilities. I had heard about ChatGPT being able to write code, but I was still not optimistic about it.

I have difficulty believing the use case unless I see it in action.

Recently one of my mentees told me he uses ChatGPT for his code architecture. And I needed clarification. He told me that he asks ChatGPT to write out the code before he writes a system. This gives him a direction to pursue and then uses this starting point to improve the code and make it better. I asked him what he had used it for recently, and he told me he used it for a questing system. I looked at the output, and it was more than I expected. It wrote the entire script with function signatures, so you are left with adapting the system to your needs.

An artist friend recently told me how he uses Mid-Journey to create concept art and then shows that to his client to get a clearer picture of what the client wants, reducing his turnaround time by 50% percent.

I recently used it for writing an instructional document. I was writing a document on how to find downloaded Unity assets on your computer. I asked ChatGPT, and it was able to provide most of the steps. It did make some mistakes, but it watched in amazement as it wrote out the steps. I cleaned it up, and voila, I had the document ready!

The last and, in my opinion, the best case is for research. My friend is writing his own coding language to create a new tool for Unity. He was working right next to me, and I saw him switch windows from Visual Studio to ChatGPT several times. I couldn't contain my curiosity and asked him what he was doing. He told me he has stopped "Googling" things and now asks ChatGPT everything. Instead of reading 5-7 threads on StackOverflow, ChatGPT summarizes the answer for him. He swears that he couldn't have written his coding language without ChatGPT. He told me that ChatGPT gets some stuff wrong and sometimes contradicts itself, but it is an indispensable tool in his workflow.

These examples and situations happened within two weeks, and now I'm convinced I need to use ChatGPT in the process. I'm still figuring out what I can do with it, but I will likely use it soon enough. I'm excited to see the future. I'm also excited about the tools released by Unity to make assets and games. I was skeptical, but I'm coming around; I can't wait to see new tools and integrate them into my workflow.

The blog post may or may not have been written by ChatGPT.