How Generative AI improves the productivity of Software developers
Generative AI refers to machine learning models that generate content like imagery, sounds, videos or text. These text generating models are called LLMs or large language models.
We can prototype LLM powered apps faster with Google’s new suite of Generative AI tools, that is, the Palm API, which gives developers access to latest LLMs hosted in the cloud.
In this blog, we’ll access the Palm API through a browser interface called the Maker suite. Its a browser-based visual interface for prototyping with the Palm API, so we can try it out without downloading or installing anything.
To prototype an LLM, we only need to tell the LLM what we want it to do, in regular old human language. This is called Prompting or Prompt Engineering.
Prompting is the art and science of writing input text to guide an LLM to generate the kind of output you want.
In this blog, we’ll look at various ways Prompt engineering can improve productivity of software developers.
1- Can generate code.
To get the code generated in output for a particular requirement, just type what do you want the code to do, in the input prompt.
2- Can explain code.
To get an explanation of a particular code, just write the code stating you need an explanation of it, in the input prompt.
3- Can convert code from one language to another.
For converting code from one language to another, just mention the code to be converted and the language it should be converted in, in the input prompt.
4- Can optimise code.
For optimising code, just mention the code snippet that you want to optimise in the prompt.
5- Can generate unit tests for a code snippet.
For generating unit tests for a code snippet, just mention the code snippet in the input prompt.
6- Can point vulnerabilities in a code snippet and address them.
For find out vulnerabilities in a code snippet, just mention the code snippet in the input prompt.
7- Can suggest which design patterns to use to solve a problem.
For getting a suggestion on the design patterns to be used to solve a particular problem, just mention the problem in the input prompt.
Conclusion
Generative AI can improve a software developer’s productivity by assisting them in various software development tasks, which could be time consuming.
Prompts mentioned above and other similar ones can be viewed and leveraged from the Prompt Gallery in MakerSuite portal — https://developers.generativeai.google/prompt-gallery
We can also create prompts that help us in solving mundane tasks and save them and access them from the MakerSuite from the ‘My library’ tab — https://makersuite.google.com/app/library
At the end of this blog post, I would encourage software developers to start leveraging Generative AI in various software development lifecycle tasks.
References
