[R] Chatbot -generated R Code

[Gregg Powell]

Agreed Timothy. LLMs are still of limited utility from a coding standpoint. But - they DO provide utility. Think how poorly LLMs coded 3 years ago - compared to today. They are an order of magnitude better now. I was not a programmer by trade. I needed to produce code to make tools, clean data, conduct analysis, and perform tasks - LLMs have made that increasingly easier. I am more productive. Clearly, I am not a purist - this attitude is anathema to some.

best,
Gregg




On Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 at 10:42 AM, Ebert,Timothy Aaron <tebert using ufl.edu> wrote:

> 

> 

> There are issues with chatbots in terms of what they allow and how they were trained. Kind of like walking into a mine field.
> That said chatbots are useful tools. You can muddy the waters by writing your own code but have the chatbot help you with specific sub-tasks that you then assemble into a working program.
> Always check the chatbot "answer." Chatbots often assume things or don't assume things thereby being very certain that their wrong answer is what you want. You can easily spend as much time correcting the chatbot as you would writing the program yourself. That said, the chatbot can provide an answer that works but is not how you would have written the program.
> 

> On many occasions I have had the chatbot state "Here is the fully functional code ..." only to find that it does not run at all.
> Chatbots lie but do so with conviction!
> 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: R-help r-help-bounces using r-project.org On Behalf Of Robert Knight
> 

> Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2025 10:40 AM
> To: Gregg Powell g.a.powell using protonmail.com
> 

> Cc: R help project r-help using r-project.org; Hans W hwborchers using gmail.com
> 

> Subject: Re: [R] Chatbot -generated R Code
> 

> [External Email]
> 

> It seems like malpractice to recommend Claude to someone using R or big data since what they would use it for is explicitly against the terms of service. Machine learning predates the microchip.
> 

> See below.
> 

> Also, quality control will make a comeback. Expert systems cannot be replaced with something akin to Bayes probability charts indedinitely.
> 

> you may not use the service to "develop any products or services that compete with our Services, including to develop or train any artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms or models."
> 

> Claude's terms further state
> 

> "Equitable relief. You agree that (a) no adequate remedy exists at law if you breach Section 3 (Use of Our Services); (b) it would be difficult to determine the damages resulting from such breach, and any such breach would cause irreparable harm; and (c) a grant of injunctive relief provides the best remedy for any such breach. You waive any opposition to such injunctive relief, as well as any demand that we prove actual damage or post a bond or other security in connection with such injunctive relief."
> 

> Machine learning includes linear regression. Other Machine Learning algorithms include Logistic Regression, decision trees, random forests, support vector machines, K-Nearest Neighbors, & Bayes Algorithms. It seems to me, that as of 14 October 2024, no one seeking to handle any data science can legitimately use Claude
> 

> 

> On Tuesday, December 9, 2025, Gregg Powell via R-help r-help using r-project.org
> 

> wrote:
> 

> > Humans who don't adapt to LLMs, or whatever form AI takes as it
> > evolves, will be left in the dust.
> > 

> > People may just now be waking up to the fact that we're three years
> > into a tremendous revolution, one of the greatest in human history. It
> > follows the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Industrial Revolution, the
> > computer revolution, the Information Age, and now... AI.
> > 

> > AGI is approaching. How quickly? Who can say. Whether AI can ever be
> > truly sentient remains a mystery. But once it can adequately replicate
> > sentience, some will ask: what's the difference?
> > 

> > As to the question of who judges what's acceptable from a coding
> > standpoint: capitalism will. Corporations will. And the question of
> > whether this is the future of coding is already behind us. It is
> > coding now, and it will only continue to improve in capability.
> > 

> > Try Replit, Cursor, Claude Code. Humans are incapable of keeping up.
> > AI still struggles with some of the most complex tasks, and it does
> > poorly at orchestrating across large repositories, but it's improving rapidly.
> > Just my observations.
> > 

> > Those who look down their noses at all this will be left behind.
> > 

> > All the best!
> > Gregg
> > 

> > On Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 at 6:32 AM, Hans W
> > hwborchers using gmail.com
> > wrote:
> > 

> > > SORRY if I missed such a discussion somewhere on R-HELP
> > 

> > > For many years I wanted to write an R function that finds the
> > > closest
> > > pair of
> > > points among a, maybe huge, set of points on the 2-dimensional
> > > plane. I
> > > never
> > > did, perhaps considering the possible complexity of this task.
> > 

> > > Now I found a book, among others describing the "sweeping
> > > algorithm",
> > > perfectly
> > > suited for the problem. And as a test, I questioned chatbots like
> > > DeepSeek and
> > > ChatGPT about such a function - and mentioned the sweeping algorithm.
> > 

> > > DeepSeek, for instance, came immediately up with a complete,
> > > efficient
> > > solution
> > > and test cases that I checked with brute force. I can see that it
> > > utilized the
> > > sweeping algorithm, documented the code, and set up a help file. I
> > > made
> > > some
> > > changes, improved the code a bit, but still it is code generated by
> > > a
> > > clever
> > > chatbot, whatever I do.
> > 

> > > Now I ask myself: Is this a correct and lawful way to write code in
> > > the
> > > future?
> > > I am not even sure DeepSeek may not have used an implementation of
> > > the
> > > sweeping
> > > algorithm that is under ACM license and would not be allowed on CRAN.
> > 

> > > I wonder how one handles this matter? Will this be the future of
> > > code
> > > writing
> > > (for R and other languages)? I would really appreciate to hear your
> > > opinion or
> > > a hint to a discussion about it.
> > 

> > > Hans Werner
> > 

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