Can GPT o1-preview Build a Python Prototype of Legacy Astronomy Software in 1 Attempt?

Software gets old. Programming languages die out. However, there might be code out there that we would like to bring into the modern day. Can ChatGPT lead us there? In this example, I see if ChatGPT o1 can possibly build a prototype Python substitute for an old astronomical software my PhD advisor wrote in the 1990s.

[ramon]

I really like that you're exploring the limits of the new o1 models. Keep it up!

[IanBridges-ob]

In 18 seconds, bugs or not, to get a running program is pretty impressive IMO

[MrCMPUTR]

";broken, don't use for now"

As a software developer with over 10 years of experience, this is a certified classic.

[AlexanderWeixelbaumer]

What I actually experienced with GPT-4o is the following:
You start with a prompt to write a function/class/program whatever. It does that or when failed you correct mistakes or return error messages. When done, you iterate with further requests for the function/class/program ( now it also should be abler to do this) and so on. But on a certain point it actually forgets some requirements that were already implemented and throws them out again.
One has to be really carefully when iterating on the same code over and over because there will be misses.

[fairyroot]

I am blown away already, well done o1 preview, I'm kinda hyped about AI in 5 years from now

[wes]

Incredible man, keep up the great work! I love to see the journey you're going through stress testing o1 for research applications

[chrisrogers]

That was honestly mind blowing for me. 1 prompt and you got ALL THAT?! With just a few more it could be completely working.

[gigigigi]

Hey! new sub here! came from Wes Roth youtube channel. he did a youtube video about your PHD Code test on Chatgpt o1.

[SilkCrown]

It seems like a lot of the functionality is already present in astropy and pyqtgraph, the libraries it used. But this is still impressive.

[jcolonna]

Kind of blown away you are not impressed. Not only did it run in the first go after the most basic prompt I’ve ever seen, it created a full program with a ton of features in a an incredibly short amount of time. Something that takes months to year to create was done measured in seconds. It doesn’t matter there were small bugs at all. Absolutely incredible. Plus that was not a bad gui either

[deadbody]

To make a perfect copy in Python, take each function/method of the program and have it rewrite it in Python, that way it has manageable chunks

[beeo]

Well it definitely produced a better image viewer than I (software engineer) could have done ... IN 18 SECONDS!

Edit: The replies so far seem to indicate that my above comment was misunderstood. I'm saying that writing that code from a single vague prompt, in 18 seconds, is already a superhuman achievement. Even though not a finished product, it's surely is a good start and a source of ideas for a human to take on, and iterate on? As a SWE of over 30 years experience, I can say that I would have dearly loved to have access to an LLM like this earlier in my career.

[h-e-acc]

Test o1 so we can come up with a unified theory 😬😬😬

[nickb]

is our curiosity and enthusiasm with testing it like this simply improving it? you're not blown away right now because it's not doing large complex tasks easily, but all of these "minuscule" additions and improvements add up over time which will do something mind blowing. i feel like we adapt to small changes over time

[makelvin]

You might want to look into what Python libraries in uses into running the AI codes. Keep in mind that there are a lot of Python libraries that is openly and easily available that would do a lot of the grunt work calculations and manipulations that your advisor might have to do from scratch back in the days. This is one of the reason why so many people across all disciplines are using Python nowadays.

[carlkim]

I'm reading that the current best workflow is initial draft by o1-preview or mini; then fixing errors with Claude 3.5 Sonnet. It seems to work wonders.

[maddocmiller]

You could try to upload the code as a textfile with 4o, ask something generic and then switch to o1-preview and tell it to convert the code.

[andywalker]

I have some idea for future video.
Do you have any ideas of real life astronomical problems, where
we can build up on ChatGPT coding capabilities?

ChatGPT can help easily provide height quality gui app + logic, in what areas can we apply it?

[HelloCorbra]

You should compare it with Sonnet 3.5, it’s really good at Python

[eheriton]

If you feed ChatGPT with all the mathematics/physics up until the 19th century, would it come up with the theory of relativity?