(1) Sure, it can tell you how to write new code in response to a prompt about your current local problem, but
(2) can it reason about an entire code base of known and unknown problems, and use that basis to figure out solutions to the unknowns such that you delete code and collapse complexity.
The software equivalent of realising that if you subtract xy from this:
x2 + 3xy + y2
You can turn it into a much neater version:
(x + y)2 + xy
…but doing that with 100k tokens of code instead of a handful of algebra tokens.
(1) Sure, it can tell you how to write new code in response to a prompt about your current local problem, but
(2) can it reason about an entire code base of known and unknown problems, and use that basis to figure out solutions to the unknowns such that you delete code and collapse complexity.
The software equivalent of realising that if you subtract xy from this:
You can turn it into a much neater version: …but doing that with 100k tokens of code instead of a handful of algebra tokens.