Using AI To Help With Assembly

Although generative AI and large language models have been pushed as direct replacements for certain kinds of workers, plenty of businesses actually doing this have found that using this new technology can cause more problems than it solves when it is given free reign over tasks. While this might not be true indefinitely, the real use case for these tools right now is as a kind of assistant to certain kinds of work. For this they can be incredibly powerful as [Ricardo] demonstrates here, using Amazon Q to help with game development on the Commodore 64.

The first step here was to generate code that would show a sprite moving across the screen. The AI first generated code in all caps, as was the style at the time of the C64, but in [Ricardo]’s development environment this caused some major problems, so the code was converted to lowercase. A more impressive conversion was done in the next steps, as the program needed to take advantage of the optimizations found in the Assembly language. With the code converted to 6502 Assembly that can run on the virtual Commodore, [Ricardo] was eventually able to show four sprites moving across the screen after several iterations with the AI, as well as change the style of the sprites to arbitrary designs.

Although the post is a bit over-optimistic on Amazon Q as a tool specifically for developers, it might have some benefits over other generative AIs especially if it’s capable at the chore of programming in Assembly language. We’d love to hear anyone with real-world experience with this and whether it is truly worth the extra cost over something like Copilot or GPT 4. For any of these generative AI models, though, it’s probably worth trying them out while they’re in their early stages. Keep in mind that there’s a lot more than programming that can be done with some of them as well.

4 thoughts on “Using AI To Help With Assembly

  1. I find, in my work, that the first, and possibly hardest part of the programming work is understanding the problem and its interrelated factors, and what kind of approach you want to the solution.  I really don’t think AI will ever substitute for a human.

    1. Oh it will probably give you a solution but it’s very unlikely right now to be anywhere near optimal or even as good as a slightly dim human could do.

      The optimal solution isn’t even a fixed solution since it’s necessarily based on the desires and priorities of the person or company asking for the solution. Strictly as a relatable, topical example, Biden and Trump would ask very different things on a new software suite for ICE. Their priorities are simply not the same.

    2. I used an AI to validate an electronics design, analyze it, provide value estimates for current, recommended resistor values, and provide formulas for each I could validate.

      Bouncing ideas off an AI works wonders for collecting your thoughts and restricting your problem space to the most likely positive results.

      Worth it.

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