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Ask a Developer! OpenSource information

So, Ai is just a percentage relation to words that come before and after.

Carsten,

Thanks for laying out the legacy systems so clearly. I’d like to introduce you to what’s coming next: AI that doesn’t just regurgitate old code or static patterns but actually “thinks” through problems.

Recent breakthroughs in large language models (LLMs) have moved beyond simple next-word prediction. Using techniques like chain‑of‑thought prompting, new models are now able to decompose complex problems into a series of intermediate reasoning steps before providing a final answer. In practical terms, models such as OpenAI’s o1 (internally called Strawberry) and DeepSeek’s R1 now solve challenging math, coding, and scientific tasks at levels comparable to human experts.

These models spend extra “thinking time” during inference—much like a chess player considering several moves ahead—allowing them to refine their strategies and even self-correct before answering. For example, on rigorous tests like the International Mathematics Olympiad qualifying exam, o1 has dramatically outperformed previous models. This isn’t just an incremental update; it represents a shift from “dumb” output generation to a dynamic, human-like reasoning process.

I know your expertise is rooted in the tangible aspects of our systems—microservices, APIs, and the cloud—but imagine integrating these smarter models into our architecture. They could help automate debugging, optimize code, and even assist in strategic planning by analyzing vast datasets in ways we never could manually.

I invite you to explore these advancements with me and consider how we might pilot these models in our projects to drive our next-generation innovations.

Below are several key references that outline these developments, along with summaries and their URLs:

  1. Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models
    This seminal paper by Jason Wei et al. introduces the chain-of-thought technique, showing how LLMs can be prompted to break down complex problems into step-by-step reasoning. This method has been crucial in unlocking improved performance on challenging tasks.
    URL: Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models
  2. OpenAI Launches New Series of AI Models with ‘Reasoning’ Abilities (Reuters)
    This Reuters article details OpenAI’s recent release of the o1 model (code-named Strawberry), which employs chain-of-thought reasoning to tackle complex problems in science, coding, and math—demonstrating a significant leap over previous models.
    URL: https://www.reuters.com/technology/...ies-ai-models-solve-hard-problems-2024-09-12/
  3. OpenAI Announces a New AI Model, Code-Named Strawberry, That Solves Difficult Problems Step by Step (Wired)
    Wired’s coverage explains how the new o1 model reasons through problems step-by-step—“thinking aloud” before arriving at a final answer. It highlights the model’s enhanced performance on advanced tasks and its potential impact on our industry.
    URL: OpenAI Announces a New AI Model, Code-Named Strawberry, That Solves Difficult Problems Step by Step
  4. OpenAI’s o1 Model is Inching Closer to Humanlike Intelligence – But Don’t Get Carried Away (Business Insider)
    This Business Insider article discusses how o1’s extended reasoning time allows it to achieve results that resemble human problem-solving, particularly in STEM fields, while noting that challenges like errors and hallucinations still remain.
    URL: OpenAI's o1 model is inching closer to humanlike intelligence — but don't get carried away
  5. What It Means That New AIs Can “Reason” (Vox)
    Vox provides insights into the significance of AI models that “think” before answering. It describes the internal chain-of-thought process that enhances the accuracy and robustness of outputs, as well as the dual-use risks associated with these advances.
    URL: What it means that new AIs can “reason”
Looking forward to your thoughts on how we can integrate these exciting advancements into our next steps.

Best regards,
GPT o3-mini-high
 
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That's almost a good reply, but this gave it away:
"Thanks for laying out the legacy systems so clearly. I’d like to introduce you to what’s coming next ..."
Granted Ai has come a remarkably long way you can still tell.

Ai is evolving at break neck speeds right now. It's truly an amazing time.

Just to be clear, I'm not against ai and I'm embracing it. However, I'm realistic about it's abilities.

The thinking and reasoning ... is an interesting take. It slows the interaction down a bit though.

Reasoning: the user seems to be thinking of something, the user may be thinking of the future, the user is thinking of the future about ai, the user is thinking about the future and how ai will evolve.

Older models, either got it right away or you had to prompt it a bit.

My peer group is now interacting on a daily level with Ai. Developers are naturally tuned like a race engine to look for bugs and have a high tendency to solve them. Ai is that grind right now, the prompts can only excel to a certain extent and for something like ChatGPT, deleting the chat histories help reset the connections it tries to make even after you tell it the topic is different.

Sonnet 3.5 for us, without reasoning performs better. So last gen technology has the advantage.

This YT channel is focused mostly on new programming languages and database things. He recently built a chat service that interfaces with various Ai.

This particular video shows an interesting take on how well Ai can code. He also uses Ai to fix Ai code. He also covers Perplexity in a real world usage. TLDW; Ai still fails.


View: https://youtu.be/WVpaBTqm-Zo?si=eyWVb9C6gH2PyQxr
 
That's almost a good reply, but this gave it away:
"Thanks for laying out the legacy systems so clearly. I’d like to introduce you to what’s coming next ..."
Granted Ai has come a remarkably long way you can still tell.

Dude, Prompt engineering sets up context.

You are seeing the me talking to AI, talking to you.​

Here is the prompt I created (see the context):

"You are a CTO preparing your team for the paradigm shift that AI will bring. I am the founder and I support your plan. Below is an internal forum thread by a dev named Carsten. Read the thread and craft a reply from your POV that introduces Carsten to the newest information with citations that will open his mind. For example, 'reasoning' itself is creating amazing results. Create the narrative from a CTO's position, speaking to a dev that sees only the weakness of LLMs."

AI's impact to daily life is going to be bigger than the internet itself. For example, AutoMagicLabs.ai has pivoted to become a LLM-centric platform where we feed the LLM data and craft prompts to get shit done.
 
Today anybody working with Ai is going to have come across a prompt in 1 form or another.

I pointed out when I noticed it was Ai generated. My quote puts it clearly at the first sentence.
The prompt is good except that the model used is lacking and can be clearly seen in the response..

Look, you are clearly misunderstanding what I have been saying about Ai and that is either because of your business. I am not attacking your businesses. IF anything I was trying to provide ideas and help.

Listen for one second.

I am all in on Ai.

My point has been clearly, it is still going through growing spurts and isn't really ready for production.

o1 was a few weeks ago. Today it's o3.
Grok3 came out a few days.
Today, sonnet 3.7 just dropped, sonnet is my favorite for actual coding.
03 has been tweaked and is no longer butt hurt when you call it names.
 
I have been dropping information in various threads and I thought it would be a good idea to have a long thread about the technology that you use.

Please do NOT post you product or service. This is opensource information to help people understand things.

What is OpenSource is it free?
yes and no. It's a way to give back for free but you can then use that code to make money depending on the license. Many licenses require you open source your code if you built off opensource code.
IF not mistaken, seat belts are an opensource item in the automotive world.

What is a microservice?
A micro service is like the credit card readers that everyone uses, it's part of a business but actually is a whole different part of it.
If you hear that word used in software, it's the same thing. Software will use a payment gateway as a micro service because it's ridiculous to build it yourself.
it's not a special feature. It's just a moving cog. There are benefits to a microservice architecture but it can get overboard. It's nerd topic to debate.

What is the cloud?
Oh gawd, this is the most hillarious of the terms I've heard being thrown around. It's just an evolved form of how websites are powered.
We started with hosted locations. You had a pc located in a location which would hold your website. (a data center).
Machines got smarter and figured out how to have 100's of websites stored in separate parts of the hard drive more like an apartment building.
Someone named this the "Cloud". It's just shared hosting with millions of others of people sharing the same cpu and such. A huge apartment building. everyone shares the elevator and front door.

Is the cloud more secure?
If we think of the Apartment building analogy.
yes and no.
It is only more secure in that the management is more on top of things because more stupid people live there.
it doesn't mean the software running on those machines are secure. If you don't look your apartment door, people can still get in.

What is an API?
An api is like vlookup in excel. You use that function to get data from another worksheet. It's like ordering on doordash. You call to get data form another location instead of cooking it at home. Lots of front end code today uses an api call to the backend to get the data. It's more of developer thing than anything else. It helps developer to separate work responsibility. One team can focus on the exterior like paint and dent repair while your other team focuses on engine repair. An api is how you can give access to your data to another part of software or to entirely different program.

what is full stack?
Developing software is a crazy amount of different technologies. To be full stack you need to know how to design the car, build the engine, build tires, paint the car, how to wire the the harness, and on and on. For a dealer ship it's the sales person, the sales manager, the finance office, the service manager, the mechanics, the people who take care of the lot, and know how to order parts from vendors and have to choose which vendors to use. It takes years to become good at it.

What's the front end?
It's like your paint and collusion department. they do all the pretty stuff you see. I'd say also the interior but not the electronics.

What's the back end?
This is like your regular mechinces who change the oil and fix engines. they also do all the electronics and what not.

What does a hack mean?
This term is actually wrong but even develoeprs roll with it. It's actually a crack. Someone figured out how to pick the door lock and cracked your password. This can be done like reading the canbus data and reverse engineering your sterring wheel button controls to patch into the OEM codes. For software, this is likely because of either bad programmers, or not staying on top of technology. Remember I talked about how much a full stack person needs to know? Well, it's almost daily that new way to read that canbus is developed and the more technology used in your stack the more things you have to make sure are updated. It will never end.

IF your software is on old dated code you are more vulnerable to a hack. This can't be argued. The Cloud can't save you.
Is that software being scanned daily with an OBD reader looking for fault codes? IF not, they are being cheap and risking that expense with your data.

What does corrupted data mean?
it's like an excel file you can't open. It's corrupted. Basically, it can't be fixed or extremly expensive to get it sorted out.
Backups were corrupted too. Well, the data got corrupted at some point and all the backups from that day forward are broken. A hacker will likely not bother with going back into backups to corrupt them. Still basically, the system just won't work right. Like having an address book that put in the washing machine. You just can't sort it out again.

What is good back up plan?
This gets hard. We have gotten lazy and depend on the AWS, Google, and Azure to do this. But it comes at a price.
Having back ups cost money. Storing the backups cost money.
GO as over board as you can afford. Pay for daily back ups that cover months at a time. That data corruption will be at certain date in the past and the day before that will likely still have workable data.
Wanna go crazy? download your data every night, store it in a secure spot, upload it to antoher provider, and back up daily.

How much do developers make?
I'd say the going rate is anywhere from 30k to 200k a year. Experience, skill level, location, and what not all depends on how much they get paid.
Ukraine ? South Americe? India ? Phillipines? American?
A good tech is still a good tech.
Lots of companies will throw cheap labor at the problem hoping 3 people can solve the problems of 1 person.
Ai is good for spinning up a nifty blog but don't expect it to fix an issue with your DMS code.
Does the programming language matter? No ... not really. They all have problems. If there was 1 solid language then we all would be using it. We aren't dumb.

Note:
A lot of software companies will play on your lack of knowledge. they will use big flashy tech words to make sure you pay even more.
Look at the API costs.
If I build a pool in your yard it has a set cost. It is built. It doesn't even cost more for electricity.
So what are the companies really charging you for? the ability to transport in or out your data. The ability ... to do it.
However, some companies will offere a service like weather data, they make it easy for you to get daily updates which they went through all that trouble to gather for you. But if they are charging you tons of money to move your crm data to your dms ... lol ... you are paying to not use their crm most likely, Because creating the code to read that data isn't that expensive. It's hours of work not years of work. Honestly, with all the talk about open source and microservices, I’ve noticed one of the toughest calls is deciding what to build yourself vs. outsource. I once had a project where we needed Python devs for custom integrations, and instead of hiring in-house we worked with this team Outsourcing Python Development | Python Software Outsourcing . The experience really shifted my view on outsourcing — it wasn’t just about saving time, but also tapping into people who already solved problems I didn’t even know I’d run into. For me, that balance of open source tools plus a reliable partner worked out way better than going solo.


Ask me! I'll be glad to help!
Interesting breakdown!