Troubleshooting is the skill

The Amp Hour · 20 Nov 2024 · Episode 683

AI in practice: 2 real uses of AI described

What this episode covers

Hosts Chris Gammell and Dave Jones discuss the evolving role of AI in engineering, noting its utility for generating code but emphasizing that troubleshooting remains a critical human skill. They compare residential electrical wiring standards in Australia and the US, detailing Dave's recent switchboard upgrade and the challenges of smart home automation. The conversation also covers the obsolescence of the Spotify Car Thing device and the regulatory protections surrounding the electrician profession in Australia.

AI in practice

Where this conversation describes AI being used to build or deliver a product. Part of the AI in practice tracker.

Engineering & simulationClaude (Anthropic)one error in generated code

The speaker used Claude to generate embedded firmware code from a hardware description (BOM), resulting in code that was 90% complete with only one error.

“So I gave it a hardware description. Got it. Like, a description of shift. Like, because I needed to drive shift registers and seven-segment display. So I gave it the description of the hardware, just the hardware, and it wrote the code, and it was almost, there was only one error in it.”

Dave Jones · Hear it at 1:23

Engineering & simulationClaude (Anthropic)

The speaker used Claude to troubleshoot Zephyr device tree configuration issues, leveraging the tool's ability to check structure and syntax.

“but it helped me troubleshoot device tree stuff, which is, like, an ongoing issue of, like, how you connect stuff together, and that was a great use case of just, like, hey, you know, kind of, like, structure, like, checking structure, that sort of thing has been very, very useful.”

Chris Gammell · Hear it at 1:51

Mentioned

Companies
Anthropic, OpenAI
Products
Spotify Car Thing
Chips
Raspberry Pi
Tools
Claude, Zephyr, Home Assistant, ESP home
Also
Electrarch

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