This very afternoon I coded with ChatGPT what would have taken me maybe some more time. Maybe 30-50% more. True that it was more-or-less independent code.

I think these tools are very effective at four things:

1. initial scaffolding (and isolated scripts also) 2. reviewing code and finding insights of where an error that we humans are very bad at spotting could be, given a description and an area of code. 3. If you are not an expert in something (for me that is frontend) it helps. 4. finding ideas on how to approach a problem through a conversation

But if you are well-versed, you still have more context and better decision making. They are ok-ish but not expert level.

It also comes with downsides if you abuse them: you could end up not understanding your codebases well enough or adding bad quality code that seems to work.

Also, if you initially think you can solve a problem with AI and it leads you the bad way, you end up wasting more time than what you save.

All in all, I find them good at scaffolding, asking ideas or solutions and spotting potential bugs.

As a whole they are accelerators but not replacements, IMHO.