5 ms·

I've been testing Grok for a few days, and it feels like a major step backward. It randomly deleted some of my code - something I haven't had happen in a long t

I've been testing Grok for a few days, and it feels like a major step backward. It randomly deleted some of my code - something I haven't had happen in a long time. While the top coding models have become much more trustworthy lately, Grok isn't there yet. It doesn't matter if it's fast and/or free; if you can't trust a tool with your code, you can't use it.

mwigdahl 1y ago
Full Self Coding?
- RedMist 1y ago
  No, making edits to an exiting codebase. (If that's what you meant)
  - pdabbadabba 1y ago
    I think that was just a joke about "Full Self Driving" -- and how it still doesn't work.
    - mplewis 1y ago
      Full Self Coding by next year at the latest
      - antonvs 1y ago
        And soon after that, self coding in a Mars colony
    - innocentoldguy 1y ago
      What do you mean by “it still doesn’t work“? I never drive anymore because my Tesla does such a fine job of doing it for me.
      - cebert 1y ago
        I’ve had good long trips with my Model Y where I didn’t need to intervene once. 4+ hour end of summer road trips.
      - vunderba 1y ago
        To me, "full self driving" means you can hop in the back seat and have a nap. If you have to keep your hands near the wheel and maintain attention to the road then... shrugs not really the same. IMHO we're in the "uncanny valley" of vehicular automation.
        rkomorn 1y ago
        > the "uncanny valley" of vehicular automation I think this is a very good description of where autonomous vehicles are right now.
        bpavuk 1y ago
        everything a layman would call "AI" is in the "uncanny valley" at the moment! - Boston Dynamics' Atlas does not move as gracefully as a human - LLM writing and code is oh-so-easy to spot - the output of diffusion models is indistinguishable from a photo... until you look at it for longer than 5 seconds and decide to zoom in because "something's wrong" - motion in AI-generated videos is very uncanny
        sebastiennight 1y ago
        > LLM writing and code is oh-so-easy to spot Maybe it's because we get use to it and therefore recognize it easier, but it does seem to get more and more recognizable instead of the opposite, doesn't it? I think I could recognize a ChatGPT email way easier in 2025 than if you showed me the same email written by gpt-3.5.
        innocentoldguy 1y ago
        You don’t have to keep your hands on the wheel.
- ModernMech 1y ago
  Fell Self Coding beta (supervised)
  - natch 1y ago
    “I strongly believe it will be unsupervised by the end of the year.” Meantime internet randos say this was “a promise”.
ewoodrich 1y ago
Kilo Code has a free trial of Grok Code Fast 1 and I've had very poor results with it so far. Much less reliable than GPT 5 Mini, which was also faster, ironically.
Retr0id 1y ago
Why is deleting code a big problem? You have version control, right?
- markerz 1y ago
  Deleting extra code is easier than verifying deleted lines and restoring the ones that seem like an accident. It's just annoying.
  - SamBam 1y ago
    It's the X/DOGE philosophy -- cut things out, and when the smoke starts spewing, try to work out which of the many things you cut were necessary.
- rs186 1y ago
  Because it's an obvious waste of time that should just never happen. Not to mention that accidents happen, not everyone always has the good habit of using version control for every change in every project, and depending on the source control software and the environment you work in, it may not even be possible to preserve a pending change (not every project uses git). I have heard real stories of software bugs causing uncommitted changes to be deleted, or causing an entire hobby project to be wiped from disk when it has not been pushed to remote repositories yet. They are good software engineers, but they are not super careful, and they trust other people's code too much.
dostick 1y ago
Which platform/language? It is so weird to read these polarised reviews that never mention language. May be comparing apples to oranges. There’s huge difference between different languages. With TS web development always working the best.
zachrip 1y ago
I think cursor was using it on my behalf and it's been making many tiny edits and also doing stuff I never asked it to do. I can rely on claude to limit itself to what I ask.

mwigdahl 1y ago

Full Self Coding?

RedMist 1y ago
No, making edits to an exiting codebase. (If that's what you meant)
- pdabbadabba 1y ago
  I think that was just a joke about "Full Self Driving" -- and how it still doesn't work.
  - mplewis 1y ago
    Full Self Coding by next year at the latest
    - antonvs 1y ago
      And soon after that, self coding in a Mars colony
  - innocentoldguy 1y ago
    What do you mean by “it still doesn’t work“? I never drive anymore because my Tesla does such a fine job of doing it for me.
    - cebert 1y ago
      I’ve had good long trips with my Model Y where I didn’t need to intervene once. 4+ hour end of summer road trips.
    - vunderba 1y ago
      To me, "full self driving" means you can hop in the back seat and have a nap. If you have to keep your hands near the wheel and maintain attention to the road then... shrugs not really the same. IMHO we're in the "uncanny valley" of vehicular automation.
      - rkomorn 1y ago
        > the "uncanny valley" of vehicular automation I think this is a very good description of where autonomous vehicles are right now.
        bpavuk 1y ago
        everything a layman would call "AI" is in the "uncanny valley" at the moment! - Boston Dynamics' Atlas does not move as gracefully as a human - LLM writing and code is oh-so-easy to spot - the output of diffusion models is indistinguishable from a photo... until you look at it for longer than 5 seconds and decide to zoom in because "something's wrong" - motion in AI-generated videos is very uncanny
        sebastiennight 1y ago
        > LLM writing and code is oh-so-easy to spot Maybe it's because we get use to it and therefore recognize it easier, but it does seem to get more and more recognizable instead of the opposite, doesn't it? I think I could recognize a ChatGPT email way easier in 2025 than if you showed me the same email written by gpt-3.5.
      - innocentoldguy 1y ago
        You don’t have to keep your hands on the wheel.
ModernMech 1y ago
Fell Self Coding beta (supervised)
- natch 1y ago
  “I strongly believe it will be unsupervised by the end of the year.” Meantime internet randos say this was “a promise”.

ewoodrich 1y ago

Kilo Code has a free trial of Grok Code Fast 1 and I've had very poor results with it so far. Much less reliable than GPT 5 Mini, which was also faster, ironically.

Retr0id 1y ago

Why is deleting code a big problem? You have version control, right?

markerz 1y ago
Deleting extra code is easier than verifying deleted lines and restoring the ones that seem like an accident. It's just annoying.
- SamBam 1y ago
  It's the X/DOGE philosophy -- cut things out, and when the smoke starts spewing, try to work out which of the many things you cut were necessary.
rs186 1y ago
Because it's an obvious waste of time that should just never happen. Not to mention that accidents happen, not everyone always has the good habit of using version control for every change in every project, and depending on the source control software and the environment you work in, it may not even be possible to preserve a pending change (not every project uses git). I have heard real stories of software bugs causing uncommitted changes to be deleted, or causing an entire hobby project to be wiped from disk when it has not been pushed to remote repositories yet. They are good software engineers, but they are not super careful, and they trust other people's code too much.

dostick 1y ago

Which platform/language? It is so weird to read these polarised reviews that never mention language. May be comparing apples to oranges. There’s huge difference between different languages. With TS web development always working the best.

zachrip 1y ago

I think cursor was using it on my behalf and it's been making many tiny edits and also doing stuff I never asked it to do. I can rely on claude to limit itself to what I ask.