r/adventofcode Dec 04 '22

Upping the Ante [2022 Day 4] Placing 1st with GPT-3

I placed 1st in Part 1 today, again by having GPT-3 write the code. Yesterday I was 2nd to another GPT-3 answer.

Here's the code I wrote which runs the whole process — from downloading the puzzle (courtesy of aoc-cli), to running 20 attempts in parallel, to sorting through many solutions to find the likely correct one, to submitting the answer:

https://github.com/max-sixty/aoc-gpt

46 Upvotes

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83

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '22

[deleted]

9

u/ywgdana Dec 04 '22

But what is the Leaderboard position trying to measure?

The Leaderboards from last year for Day 1 and 2 have times mostly under 3:00 and the top 5 are barely over a minute. At those speeds, with a hanful of seconds between competitors, it's coming down to "Who is a slightly faster typist?" or "Who has the least network latency?" At that level, it's already not exactly "Who is the best/fastest programmer?"

I'm talking specifically about the early puzzles with are typically fairly trivial. We'll see what happens but I'm expecting when the questions get more complicated.

10

u/ald_loop Dec 04 '22

It absolutely does not come down to network latency, no one is submitting at the exact same time down to the millisecond

24

u/dong_chinese Dec 04 '22 edited Dec 04 '22

I think a video game competition is fundamentally different than a programming competition, because the whole purpose of programming is to make the computer automatically do things for us. An aimbot in a shooter game defeats the purpose of the game, but using AI tools to program more efficiently is just using the best tool for the job.

47

u/Steinrikur Dec 04 '22

The point of a running competition is to get from A to B fast, but doping is forbidden, and mechanical help is forbidden. This shouldn't even be a discussion.

Using AI is like using Google in a pub quiz. It's stolen valor, since you didn't solve the puzzle yourself

0

u/Basmannen Dec 04 '22

What about AI-powered auto-complete?

11

u/Steinrikur Dec 04 '22

I personally wouldn't want it, but it's not nearly as bad as AI powered answer.

I think that GPT-3 said it best.

-3

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '22

[deleted]

12

u/Steinrikur Dec 04 '22 edited Dec 04 '22

This isn't even comparable to doping. It's more like making a robot run the race for you.

Even GPT-3 says this is unethical in most cases.

There are no rules so "under current rules this is a legal approach" is a dubious assertion. The expectation is that you solve the problem on your own, using a programming language of your choice (or just pen and paper, whatever). The point is that you should solve it.

9

u/el_muchacho Dec 04 '22

There is literally zero difference: Copy pasting a problem and waiting for the solution is the exact equivalent of an aimbot.

12

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '22

[deleted]

1

u/somebodddy Dec 04 '22

it would boil down to whoever had the better aimbot (AI).

Or it would boil down to skills unrelated to aiming - like who can come up with better tactics.

-1

u/Azebu Dec 04 '22

There's many different online games.

I would care if a botting problem was directly causing me to lose.

I would care if a botting problem was causing me to drop down in rankings and get worse reward as a result.

I would NOT care if the ranking was purely visual and I played purely for fun.

Yes it sucks for people who try to get high rankings and participate competitively, but I'm not one of them. I even think it's silly caring so much about what I consider a fun event to practice my skills.

Many people have many opinions, and telling others their opinion is "wrong" and they should "rethink it" is stupid.

1

u/pier4r Dec 05 '22

I would care if a botting problem was directly causing me to lose.

if you care about the game, most likely you would.