1d ago

Why don't these code-writing AIs just output straight up machine code?

For background, I am a programmer, but have largely ignored everything having to do with AI (re: LLMs) for the past few years.

I just got to wondering, though. Why are these LLMs generating high level programming language code instead skipping the middle man and spitting out raw 1s and 0s for x86 to execute?

Is it that they aren't trained on this sort of thing? Is it for the human code reviewers to be able to make their own edits on top of the AI-generated code? Are there AIs doing this that I'm just not aware of?

I just feel like there might be some level of optimization that could be made by something that understands the code and the machine at this level.

27 comments

I think i saw a video a few weeks ago where 2 ai assistants realises the other was also an ai so they agreed to switch to another protocol (to me it sounded like 56k modem noises or old 8 bit cassette tapes played on a hifi) so they could communicate more efficiently.
I suspect something similar would happen with code.
- That was a tech demo I'm pretty sure and not just a thing they do btw. A company was trying to make a more efficient sound based comms for AI(?)
  
  Clearly as both sides of the conversion were in the audio. I believe my point still stands in relation to the original question. I.e. talk at the level both sides agree on