I’m all-in on AI & LLMs (but it’s also just another tool)
Like the title says: I’m all-in on AI and LLM-based applications. But what does that mean exactly, for a traditional software engineer like myself? Actually, not that much. LLMs are another (very) useful tool for building applications, with their own set of opportunities and challenges.
Up until now, I’ve specialized in building cloud-native applications, mainly in Go. I’m well-versed in the different cloud vendors and their available tools and technologies. I’ve worked with web technologies since I was an early teenager. I know (roughly) how every part of the stack works. And even though distributed systems can be very hard to work with, we’ve had experience with them for twenty or so years now. That’s a lot of time to get to know something.
And now, LLMs have come along, and they’re super useful! They feel like magic! But they’re also kinda weird, indeterministic, and hard to grapple. How do I test them systematically? How do I know I’m actually improving systems when iterating on prompts? How do I work with and test a system that can “call out” to supplied functions using pure text?
We’re all still figuring this out. We don’t have a specific tool chain we always reach for, because the tools themselves are still being built, and rapidly. They change from day to day. So it’s not only about staying on top of the rapid changes in the LLM world itself, but also staying on top of how to incorporate those changes into your day-to-day work.
But that’s just how it is with exciting new technologies! Maybe a few years from now, the pace of change won’t be as rapid, we’ll have adapted our toolchains to incorporate LLMs, and calling out to them will be not that different from calling out to your database system, S3, or your search cluster.
So, I’ve got a lot of learning to do. My specialization in cloud-native Go applications won’t go away, it’s just that I also want to be an expert at incorporating LLMs into those. That means figuring out tooling, best practices, and appropriate methods for LLMs in the Go ecosystem. I’m looking forward to it.
I’m Markus, an independent software consultant. 🤓✨
See my services or reach out at markus@maragu.dk.
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