What is CodeGen?

What is Salesforce's CodeGen?

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The dream of no-code platforms just got one small step closer with an incredible paper released by Salesforce on the Voice AI of code generation.

AI Model That Turns Simple Natural Language Requests Into Executable Code

Hey Guys,

Code generation is one of the hottest intersections for A.I. to impact the future or programming. So you’ve heard about Github Copilot? Now let’s meet Salesforce's 'CodeGen’ : An AI Model That Turns Simple Natural Language Requests Into Executable Code.

Paper:?https://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.13474.pdf

Read Paper

Github:?https://github.com/salesforce/CodeGen

Could Salesforce Launch a GitHub Copilot Killer?

I’m following closely the no-code platform movement, RPA and all sorts of related trends. Here Salesforce has unveiled?CodeGen, a large scale language model which turns simple English prompts into executable code. You just have to describe?what the code should do in natural language, and the machine writes it for you.

Salesforce Blog on Conversational AI

We cover Microsoft Research, OpenAI, Meta AI and DeepMind too much sometimes with their hype, but what about Salesforce?

Advent of Conversational AI

Imagine being able to tell a?machine to write an app?simply by telling it what the app does. As far-fetched as it may appear, this scenario is already a reality. I’m just about ready to talk to my Slack app.

According to Salesforce AI Research, conversational AI programming is a new paradigm that brings this vision to life, thanks to an AI system that builds software.

While Microsoft had Cortana it didn’t really pan out very well, even as our interest in Amazon’s Alexa waned. For many of us this just left Google.

The CodeGen model generates functioning code that solves the problem correctly. Source:Salesforce AI Research Report.

CodeGen GIF:

Introducing CodeGen: Turning Prompts Into Programs

The first step towards this vision is now here in the form of our large-scale language model,?CodeGen, which turns simple English prompts into executable code. You don’t write any code yourself; instead, you?describe?what the code should do, in natural language -- and the machine writes it for you.

For a quick look at how it works, let’s ask CodeGen to?solve the two-sum problem:?find two integers in a list that add up to a certain number.

To begin, we simply prompt the model, in plain English, to solve the two-sum problem. As you can see in the brief video below, our CodeGen model generates functioning code that solves the problem correctly.

So where are we going with this? No-code platforms are likely to scale in the decades ahead. This will significantly revalorize the democratization of software and A.I. This is why companies like Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and many Chinese companies are racing to this technology.

The CodeGen Approach: Make Coding as Simple as Speaking

• CodeGen makes programming as simple as talking, which is the great promise of conversational AI programming.
• The conversational AI programming implementation offers a glimpse into the future of democratizing software engineering for the general public. An “AI assistant” converts English descriptions into usable Python code – allowing anyone to write code, even if they have no programming experience. This conversational paradigm is enabled by the underlying language model, CodeGen, which will be made open source to speed up research.

CodeGen’s Two Faces: For Non-Coders and Programmers alike

While anyone, including non-coders, can use CodeGen to create the software from scratch, it can benefit in some circumstances to have some programming experience. Knowing coding ideas, for example, can help one come up with follow-up commands to offer CodeGen and suggest new directions to go down while writing the code (like using hash maps or recursion – or not using these techniques).

Salesforce also give us tips on how to interact with the the smart machine world:

Some Quick Background: Terms, Definitions, Concepts

Before proceeding further, let’s (Salesforce) define some of the terms and ideas used in this blog:

Programming?or?Coding:?A multi-step process designed to get a machine to achieve a goal:

• Translate a problem into a series of steps that solve it (the algorithm)
• Translate that algorithm into a computer language (the program)
• Run that program to see if it works (the test)
• Find out which parts of the program did not work properly (debugging)
• Revise the program (adjust for errors) and run it again (re-test)
• Continue the run-debug-revise cycle until the program works (a working program runs successfully and solves the problem).

While the objective is to produce ideal programs for any problem by simply telling the computer what you want and not having to know how to code, the reality is that learning how to code can often assist CodeGen in finding a decent solution.

This is especially true for more complicated situations, where having the user suggest various ways may assist the software in finding a working – or more efficient – solution. Even for seasoned programmers,?CodeGen enables getting to a working solution faster and easier and allows rapid exploration of other approaches. In other words, CodeGen is advantageous to programmers of all levels.

Salesforce might actually be on to something here.

There’s also a huge AI for Good component here to align with a no-code world where new kinds of startups can easily form in a deflationary environment that stimulates innovation and lowers the bar to entry.

Why Conversational AI Programming is Important: Societal Benefits and Impact

While programming is a valuable ability now, it will be a must in many tech positions in the coming decade.

Accelerated DevOps and MLOps with A.I. and No-Code Solutions

Every part of society requires more and more code, and these programs are becoming increasingly sophisticated. As a result, solutions like CodeGen (which?help speed up the programming process?while making it easier and more controllable) should play a key part in finishing increasingly huge coding projects and attracting a new generation of programmers to the field.

The Advent of Conversational-AI

Conversational AI programming tools like CodeGen appear destined to become vital to our future, both at Salesforce and at other enterprises. But there’s another problem on the horizon: what will happen when future programming needs become so complicated that the talents required to produce them exceed human capabilities?

The Diversification of the Software and A.I. Services Stack

Digital ecosystems are growing into systems with ever-increasing functional complexity, and the complexity of these systems may eventually exceed human ability to comprehend, let alone design, them.

The full article is too long for LinkedIn and with formatting issues, you can read the original longer version here.

I find the topic super interesting and I hope you do as well.

If you enjoy articles about A.I. at the intersection of breaking news join AiSupremacy?here. I cannot continue to write without community support. (follow the link below).

https://aisupremacy.substack.com/subscribe