November 1, 2024 • 5 mins
Can AI build an app? Tech expert Paul Stenhouse puts it to the test.
I had an idea. ‘All The Calls’ - an app that tracks presidential race calls across networks in real-time. It absolutely is possible, however it's not without its headaches and frustrations. But wow – it is absolutely impressive.
You need to be very, very good at describing things. I have never thought about my words so much.
Things I learned:
- You absolutely need to still be technical.
- Once you head down a bad path with the AI Bot you're stick on that track.
- Was it a total pain in the backside at times? Yes.
- Did I find myself in frustrating loops fixing something only for it to break again on the next prompt? Yes.
- Did it suggest some terrible solutions? Yes.
- Do I think my mum could have built this? No... but maybe with some learning.
Over the course of the week, I found my rhythm on how to interact with it. What context it needs, what words to use.
The takeaway: it actually showed me the power of communication, and the need for the skill to communicate.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
D twenty two to eleven on News Talks, said be
Paul Stenhouse our text. Bert has undertaken a bit of
an experiment this week. He wanted to see if AI
could build an app. He's put it to the test
for us.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Goal to Paul, Good morning Jack. I don't know if
it was a good idea, and it's a bit a
frustrating experience, but I can say there is a working
app that I wrote zero lines of code for. That's
kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, that is amazing. Okay, so tell us about the
idea for the app or for your website, and then
explain to us how you managed to build it without
actually writing any code.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
So I hate this thought. Every time there's an election call,
when each of his networks makes a call, I thought,
wouldn't it be good if we could track that so
that we could see which network thinks we're going to
have who as the president of the United States. The election,
of course, is on Tuesday. And I took to an
application that is called Cursor, and Cursor is like a
(01:12):
development tool crossed with AI, so you can actually ask
it things, and it will then create the code for it,
and you can commit that to your you know, dev environment,
your code just with the click of a button. It's incredible.
So you can say, give me a pigraph that shows
X and y it uses this is a variable. That
(01:33):
is a variable. Push submit. It will give you back
fully working code. And then what he basically did is
layered these on and on and on and on. So
you ask it to do one thing, then you ask
it to do another thing, then you ask it to
connect those two things, and then you ask it to
do something else. Yeah, it does get rather complicated. It
(01:53):
is not without headaches, it is not without frustrations. But
there is a working app app jecktame at all the
calls dot app, all the calls dot apps.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
You can go to the Yeah, okay, you've already fortunately
sent me a little previous so I gave you joyed
looking at it this week. No, it's pretty amazing what
you can do given you haven't had to do any code,
although obviously I haven't been privy to the frustrations of
all of the layering. But what do you think this
means for the future of coding? Because for years now
we've been saying, Oh, kids don't need to worry about handwriting.
(02:25):
Kids don't even need to worry about multiplication. All they
need to know is how to code, and they'll have
a job for life.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, well, I think that's a bit that's changing, right,
So I think you need to know technical concepts. People
still need to be technical. You still need to know
kind of what the tech is trying to do, and
what the concepts are, and what the individual services are
that make an application in a website run. What you
don't need to do, though, is actually know how to
do the actual code. The language part. This runs on typescript.
(02:52):
I don't know any typescript A I wrote it for me,
So I think that's really important. And I think that
just understanding the concepts, understanding how to talk to it.
One of the things I found this week Jack was
I really had to work out out what context it needed.
Words are really important with AI, right, you need to
make sure you're really explicit and the takeaway price down
(03:14):
does really have to be You have to be spot on, Yeah,
absolutely spot on. You know, using words like overlaid versus
above mean very different things, and they can send you
down a very bad path. Now overlaid and above it
kind of sound reasonably similar and have a pretty You know,
when you have a bit of context, they mean something,
but in coding terms they mean something very different, and
so that can lead you down some bad paths. But
(03:35):
I will say the takeaway I have is that it
really is about the power of communication. Funnily enough, the
ability and the skill to communicate explicitly, be clear, be concise,
and also doing some active listing, checking and clarifying what
the AI is telling you actually helps you create something.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, okay, let's see it. That's very interesting. Hey, I've
got to ask you, since you are in the US,
what is your pick for Wednesday this week?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Oh? You mean who I think it's going to be
and who I want it to be?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Because well, who do you think? Yeah? So you you
I'm guessing here that you are not a Donald Trump fan.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
That would be true. Yes, So are we voting? I
think vote over here?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Now?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You can vote, yeah, I can vote.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, so I'll be casting my vote for Kamala Harris.
But watching with anticipation. The problem is is I think
I'm just going back to that last election where you know,
where it was him versus Clinton and just the polls
were just so wrong. And I guess I have no
faith in the polls. I faith that the election, but
the polling, I guess is what I'm nervous about. So
(04:49):
we'll see the middle of the country's doing.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I think. I think that's very wise. I think not
Donald Trump himself has always said he never puts any
faith in the polls. I just think, you know, because
all of the polsters correct on new information, right so
over the last couple of elections that have undercounted Donald
Trump support heading into the election, and they might do
the same thing this time around. They might also overcorrect.
We just don't know, and we won't know until the
results come through. Thank you so much, Paul, what a
(05:14):
fascinating experiment. I'm going to give you Paul's website again
so you can go and have a look or his
app once again. I hope that he's managed to build
in plenty of capacity for the millions of hits. Maybe
he's got a good advertising framework in there as well,
so we can make sure that Paul is sitting pretty.
It's all the calls dot app, so allthecalls dot app. Well,
make sure that we put a link on our website
(05:35):
as well, so you can see what Paul was able
to build using only AI.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to Newstalk ZB from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
D twenty two to eleven on News Talks, said be
Paul Stenhouse our text. Bert has undertaken a bit of
an experiment this week. He wanted to see if AI
could build an app. He's put it to the test
for us.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Goal to Paul, Good morning Jack. I don't know if
it was a good idea, and it's a bit a
frustrating experience, but I can say there is a working
app that I wrote zero lines of code for. That's
kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, that is amazing. Okay, so tell us about the
idea for the app or for your website, and then
explain to us how you managed to build it without
actually writing any code.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
So I hate this thought. Every time there's an election call,
when each of his networks makes a call, I thought,
wouldn't it be good if we could track that so
that we could see which network thinks we're going to
have who as the president of the United States. The election,
of course, is on Tuesday. And I took to an
application that is called Cursor, and Cursor is like a
(01:12):
development tool crossed with AI, so you can actually ask
it things, and it will then create the code for it,
and you can commit that to your you know, dev environment,
your code just with the click of a button. It's incredible.
So you can say, give me a pigraph that shows
X and y it uses this is a variable. That
(01:33):
is a variable. Push submit. It will give you back
fully working code. And then what he basically did is
layered these on and on and on and on. So
you ask it to do one thing, then you ask
it to do another thing, then you ask it to
connect those two things, and then you ask it to
do something else. Yeah, it does get rather complicated. It
(01:53):
is not without headaches, it is not without frustrations. But
there is a working app app jecktame at all the
calls dot app, all the calls dot apps.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
You can go to the Yeah, okay, you've already fortunately
sent me a little previous so I gave you joyed
looking at it this week. No, it's pretty amazing what
you can do given you haven't had to do any code,
although obviously I haven't been privy to the frustrations of
all of the layering. But what do you think this
means for the future of coding? Because for years now
we've been saying, Oh, kids don't need to worry about handwriting.
(02:25):
Kids don't even need to worry about multiplication. All they
need to know is how to code, and they'll have
a job for life.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, well, I think that's a bit that's changing, right,
So I think you need to know technical concepts. People
still need to be technical. You still need to know
kind of what the tech is trying to do, and
what the concepts are, and what the individual services are
that make an application in a website run. What you
don't need to do, though, is actually know how to
do the actual code. The language part. This runs on typescript.
(02:52):
I don't know any typescript A I wrote it for me,
So I think that's really important. And I think that
just understanding the concepts, understanding how to talk to it.
One of the things I found this week Jack was
I really had to work out out what context it needed.
Words are really important with AI, right, you need to
make sure you're really explicit and the takeaway price down
(03:14):
does really have to be You have to be spot on, Yeah,
absolutely spot on. You know, using words like overlaid versus
above mean very different things, and they can send you
down a very bad path. Now overlaid and above it
kind of sound reasonably similar and have a pretty You know,
when you have a bit of context, they mean something,
but in coding terms they mean something very different, and
so that can lead you down some bad paths. But
(03:35):
I will say the takeaway I have is that it
really is about the power of communication. Funnily enough, the
ability and the skill to communicate explicitly, be clear, be concise,
and also doing some active listing, checking and clarifying what
the AI is telling you actually helps you create something.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, okay, let's see it. That's very interesting. Hey, I've
got to ask you, since you are in the US,
what is your pick for Wednesday this week?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Oh? You mean who I think it's going to be
and who I want it to be?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Because well, who do you think? Yeah? So you you
I'm guessing here that you are not a Donald Trump fan.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
That would be true. Yes, So are we voting? I
think vote over here?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Now?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You can vote, yeah, I can vote.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, so I'll be casting my vote for Kamala Harris.
But watching with anticipation. The problem is is I think
I'm just going back to that last election where you know,
where it was him versus Clinton and just the polls
were just so wrong. And I guess I have no
faith in the polls. I faith that the election, but
the polling, I guess is what I'm nervous about. So
(04:49):
we'll see the middle of the country's doing.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I think. I think that's very wise. I think not
Donald Trump himself has always said he never puts any
faith in the polls. I just think, you know, because
all of the polsters correct on new information, right so
over the last couple of elections that have undercounted Donald
Trump support heading into the election, and they might do
the same thing this time around. They might also overcorrect.
We just don't know, and we won't know until the
results come through. Thank you so much, Paul, what a
(05:14):
fascinating experiment. I'm going to give you Paul's website again
so you can go and have a look or his
app once again. I hope that he's managed to build
in plenty of capacity for the millions of hits. Maybe
he's got a good advertising framework in there as well,
so we can make sure that Paul is sitting pretty.
It's all the calls dot app, so allthecalls dot app. Well,
make sure that we put a link on our website
(05:35):
as well, so you can see what Paul was able
to build using only AI.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to Newstalk ZB from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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