577: Holy Order of the Admins

Why you shouldn't use AI to write your tests, and the crazy deals new AI companies are getting themselves into to access hardware.

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• How Google migrated billions of lines of code from Perforce to Piper — As of 2011, the single server had been in operation for the past eleven years of Google history. It had served Google the two-year-old startup, and had now scaled to support Google the public company. In fact, around that time, a lucky Google engineer had just snagged PR #20,000,000. Still chugging along, the server was now executing “11-12 million commands” a day.
• Spokane Meetup - No-Li Brewhouse, Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 4:00 PM — We owe our Spokane crew a meetup, so let's do it on my way to Montana!
• Why you shouldn't use AI to write your tests — People are starting to use AI to write their tests. This is great! Also very bad.
• We created the first open-source implementation of Meta’s TestGen–LLM — In February, Meta researchers published a paper titled Automated Unit Test Improvement using Large Language Models at Meta, which introduces a tool they called TestGen-LLM. The fully automated approach to increasing test coverage “with guaranteed assurances for improvement over the existing code base” created waves in the software engineering world.
• Automated Unit Test Improvement using Large Language Models at Meta
• Software Development Job Postings on Indeed in the United States — Indeed calculates the index change in seasonally-adjusted job postings since February 1, 2020, the pre-pandemic baseline.
• Where the Economy, and the World, Are Headed - YouTube — If you want to know where the economy is headed, ask an economist. If you want to know why (and more), ask a treasury secretary, an economic diplomat, a director of the National Economic Council and the president of Harvard. Larry Summers has been all of those things (and more).
• Apple’s Longer-Lasting Devices, iOS 19 and Apple Intelligence on the Vision Pro — Apple’s strategy to make its devices last longer will mean AI and software are even more important to its business.
• Apple may charge “monthly fees” for advanced Apple Intelligence features — “Though Apple Intelligence will be free to start, the long-term plan is to make money off the capabilities,” said the report. “The company could eventually launch something like Apple Intelligence+ — with extra features that users pay monthly fees for, just like iCloud,” it added.
• Apple Intelligence coming to Vision Pro headset, some features could eventually be paid — Gurman says that Apple is facing slower hardware upgrades which is why it’s banking more on service fees and subscriptions for growth
• Apple "will actually be making money from AI," says Bloomberg's Mark Gurman — Longer term, he speculates, the company may be planning a monthly subscription service like "Apple Intelligence+" that offers additional features to monetize the technology. Apple already takes a cut of subscription revenue from any AI partner it brings on board. "The company will be less reliant on hardware tweaks to drive its business and will actually be making money from AI — something everyone in Silicon Valley is hoping to pull off," Gurman says.
• character.ai — Personalized AI for every moment of your day
• Character, a Chatbot Pioneer, Mulls Deals With Rivals Google and Meta — The Information