ChatGPT will not replace developers – ETHDubai developers weigh in

by James · March 15, 2023

The latest version of ChatGPT has caused a stir online, scoring high marks on SAT tests and highlighting vulnerabilities and exploits in Ethereum’s smart contracts.

GPT-4 is the latest version of the highly influential artificial intelligence (AI) language model, which boasts “human-level performance on various professional and academic standards,” according to developer OpenAI.

Aside from outstanding scores on a variety of professional and academic benchmarks, GPT-4 has also demonstrated the ability to review Ethereum’s smart contracts, highlight vulnerabilities, and even suggest potential ways to exploit the code.

Coinbase director Conor Grogan shared an immediate dialogue with ChatGPT in which the AI chatbot ‘highlighted a number of security vulnerabilities’ before confirming a method to exploit the contract.

Related: 10 Ways Blockchain Developers Can Use ChatGPT

Perhaps more interesting is that ChatGPT’s recommendation is checked out, given that the exact same smart contract was hacked in 2018 via the same method as the language model suggested.

On the back of the latest ChatGPT upgrade and its potential to review, propose and provide insights to developers of Ethereum smart contracts, Cointelegraph journalist Ezra Reguerra explored the topic in conversation with attendees at the ETHDubai conference this week.

Cointelegraph journalist Ezra Reguerra in conversation with blockchain developer Salman Arshad at the ETHDubai conference.

Blockchain developer Salman Arshad highlighted the connection ChatGPT has with blockchain brought focus to Web3 in security and audit processes. Smart contract auditors are expensive and ChatGPT offers a timely and cost-effective way to review code:

“ChatGPT and AI tools are a blessing, they are not our enemies and are not here to end a developer’s career.”

Arshad added that ChatGPT’s broad knowledge base is its strength, but it still requires human input for specific business logic and questions. The advantage is that developers can get much more work done in far less time by using AI-powered tools:

“You know what your business wants to do, you can tell ChatGPT and it can perfectly transform your commands into a smart contract, audit process, document or white paper.”

Another blockchain Syed Ghazanfer also highlighted the collaborative nature of ChatGPT, which remains far more beneficial to a wide range of users than the potential threat of automating processes and replacing human workers:

“I’m really in favor of ChatGPT. For it to replace you, you must communicate requirements that are not possible in native English. That’s why we invented programming languages.”

Ghazanfer added that ChatGPT will remain a useful tool for developers, automating processes such as reading and condensing full documentation.

As previously explored by Cointelegraph, ChatGPT is proving significantly useful for developers to solve coding problems. The AI-powered tool also promises to be useful for security audits of smart contracts and Web3 platforms.