IBM taps AI to translate COBOL code to Java | TechCrunch
techcrunch.comIBM's new product offering, Code Assistant for IBM Z, leverages a generative AI model to translate COBOL code to Java.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/3758187
It’s not the 1st time a language/tool will be lost to the annals of the job market, eg VB6 or FoxPro. Though previously all such cases used to happen gradually, giving most people enough time to adapt to the changes.
I wonder what’s it going to be like this time now that the machine, w/ the help of humans of course, can accomplish an otherwise multi-month risky corporate project much faster? What happens to all those COBOL developer jobs?
Pray share your thoughts, esp if you’re a COBOL professional and have more context around the implication of this announcement 🙏
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Ibm replaces COBOL: Great idea
… with Java: Questionable idea
… using an LLM: Exceptionally bad idea
There’s a massive established base of Java based financial and other enterprise software to learn from. Java might be the best choice here.
I’ve actually talked with two other companies that are doing that rather than hiring people to convert things. Since it’s not asking the LLM to create code from scratch or a framework, apparently it works surprisingly well and then they have a dev, versed in a modern language go through it, and ensure it’s relatively sane. The quote I heard was “it’s really no different than picking up someone else’s code to look at”.
I’d probably do this for a hobby project
but financial software? no way in heck!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
For large organizations, it tends to be a complex and costly proposition, given the small number of COBOL experts in the world.
When the Commonwealth Bank of Australia replaced its core COBOL platform in 2012, it took five years and cost over $700 million.
Running locally in an on-premises configuration or in the cloud as a managed service, Code Assistant is powered by a code-generating model, CodeNet, that can understand not only COBOL and Java but around 80 different programming languages.
A recent Stanford study finds that software engineers who use code-generating AI systems similar to it are more likely to cause vulnerabilities in the apps they develop.
“Like any AI system, there might be unique usage patterns of an enterprise’s COBOL application that Code Assistant for IBM Z may not have mastered yet,” Puri said.
IBM sees a future in broader code-generating AI tools, as well — intent on competing with apps like GitHub Copilot and Amazon CodeWhisperer.
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