Will ChatGPT kill Stack Overflow?
For many years, Stack Overflow has been the go-to platform for developers that seek answers to technical questions. However, with the recent rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, the landscape of technical support has changed dramatically. It is now possible to get personalized help on any topic, including programming through natural dialogue with the chatbot. This makes it easy to ask follow-up questions and feels a lot like talking to a human expert on any given topic. thus, it is worth re-evaluating whether Stack Overflow remains the best option for developers seeking technical support or if it is time to retire the platform.
Stack Overflow is a platform for a huge community of developers that ask and answer questions related to coding. It launched in 2008 and has since become one of the largest online communities for developers, with a vast repository of questions and answers related to pretty much any programming language and technology. The platform uses a voting system, where the most helpful and pertinent answers are promoted to the top, making it easier for users to find the correct information. The sheer volume of answered questions on Stack Overflow often makes it the top result when developers search for technical solutions on search engines, with even the most uncommon problems often having already been asked and answered by someone in the community.
ChatGPT, on the other hand, is a highly sophisticated AI-powered chatbot that has been trained on an enormous dataset of text from the internet. The training data consists of a diverse range of sources, including websites, forums, and discussion boards. This includes information related to coding. The chatbot uses advanced NLP techniques to understand the user’s query and provide relevant answers. It also has the ability to generate code snippets, making it a valuable resource for developers who are looking for quick solutions to coding problems. The vast amount of data that ChatGPT has been trained on has also allowed it to learn and understand the nuances of human language, making it a highly conversational and effective tool for technical support.
Advantages of Stack Overflow
The voting system in Stack Overflow is an important factor that makes it an arguably more reliable resource compared to ChatGPT. It creates a self-policing mechanism moderated by real humans. This system helps to maintain the reliability of the information on Stack Overflow, as it gives users confidence that the answers they are finding are trustworthy and confirmed to be correct by others.
Stack Overflow also has the advantage of being constantly updated with new questions and answers. As new technologies appear, new questions and answers are generated for them, so the information on the platform is always current and up-to-date. This is particularly important in a field like programming where new technologies and best practices are constantly emerging.
On the other hand, ChatGPT, being an AI language model, has a knowledge cutoff, which means it is only trained on text up until a certain point in time. The training data for ChatGPT was last updated in 2021, so it may not have the most current information available. However, it is worth noting that Bing is working on integrating ChatGPT into its search engine, allowing it to have real-time access to all information on the internet, so its reliability may hugely increase in the near future.
Another advantage of Stack Overflow is that the code snippets that are promoted to the top of the answers have been confirmed to work and tested. The Stack Overflow community is diligent about verifying that the code snippets they vote up are functional and correct.
On the other hand, while ChatGPT is capable of generating code snippets in response to certain questions, it may suggest code that is incomplete or contains errors. The code generated by ChatGPT is based on patterns it has seen in the text it has been trained on, so it may not always be complete or correct. Additionally, ChatGPT is not able to verify the functionality of the code it generates. Here is an example of a code snippet that ChatGPT suggested for using an NPM package called eventsource. Although the code snippet was supposed to represent a complete Component, it left out actually importing the package into the code. Although a small mistake, it highlights the potential shortcomings of the bot's accuracy:
Although, it is worth noting that ChatGPT was very apologetic and graciously corrected itself after a follow-up question:
Recently, there has been a surge of Stack Overflow users utilizing ChatGPT to answer questions on the platform. However, this has resulted in the banning of the AI-powered chatbot by the administrators of the website. The reason for the ban was given by the administrators as follows:
Overall, because the average rate of getting correct answers from ChatGPT is too low, the posting of answers created by ChatGPT is substantially harmful to the site and to users who are asking and looking for correct answers.
Advantages of ChatGPT
ChatGPT has a distinct advantage over Stack Overflow when it comes to exploratory questions. Stack Overflow is designed to provide answers to specific, well-defined problems, and while it has a vast repository of questions and answers, it may not always be the best resource for developers looking for guidance on more open-ended or exploratory questions.
Here is an example of ChatGPT providing excellent guidance and suggestions on how to solve a more general coding challenge:
Another advantage that ChatGPT has, is that it is designed to engage in conversation, which makes it easier for developers to get the information they need in a conversational and approachable format. This can be particularly helpful for developers who are new to a particular technology or programming language, as they can ask ChatGPT to explain complex concepts in simple terms. It also makes it very easy and encouraging to ask follow-up questions to really gain a deep understanding of the topic that is being discussed. Continuing the previous example, here is a follow-up question that ChatGPT handled very well:
Essentially, what would have taken me at least 30 minutes to research, I learned within two text messages. Using ChatGPT for such scenarios genuinely feels like talking to a Senior developer on any given technical topic.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is difficult to say whether ChatGPT is better than Stack Overflow, as they both have their own strengths and weaknesses that make them suitable for different use cases. When it comes to highly technical questions such as syntax challenges or questions about newer technologies, Stack Overflow is often the best resource, as its vast repository of questions and answers can provide developers with the specific information they need to solve a problem.
However, when developers have more complex questions about architectural or design approaches, or if they want to discuss a topic in more detail, ChatGPT can be the better choice. With its ability to generate relevant and informative responses to a wide range of questions, and its conversational approach, ChatGPT can provide developers with the guidance and support they need to solve complex challenges and explore new ideas.
In my opinion, both ChatGPT and Stack Overflow are critical resources for any software developer in 2022. Both of these platforms provide developers with a comprehensive set of tools to can help them tackle any challenge they may face in their coding journey.
