[HN Gopher] Eric Schmidt-backed Augment, a GitHub Copilot rival,...
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       Eric Schmidt-backed Augment, a GitHub Copilot rival, launches out
       of stealth
        
       Author : jmcphers
       Score  : 38 points
       Date   : 2024-04-24 20:19 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (techcrunch.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (techcrunch.com)
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | Official post: https://www.augmentcode.com/blog/augment-inc-
       | raises-227-mill...
        
       | mepian wrote:
       | I wonder if the name was inspired by Doug Engelbart's system:
       | https://dougengelbart.org/content/view/155/
        
       | bix6 wrote:
       | Anyone tried it?
        
         | s09dfhks wrote:
         | Friend of mine works there and got me access to the VScode
         | plugin. I've only used it a handful of times and I have not
         | used copilot. It makes ok suggestions. That's about all I can
         | say. I don't expect it to do my job for me but it's not useless
        
           | xenospn wrote:
           | Same as copilot, then?
        
       | simple10 wrote:
       | I'm always a bit surprised when startups come out of stealth mode
       | with no product demo videos and only a press release. My guess is
       | they're either wanting to raise more money before official
       | launch, or just wanting to grab a press cycle ahead of competitor
       | announcements to build the waitlist. Is there any strategic
       | reason in 2024 to not include more details on the website?
        
         | mooreds wrote:
         | They raised 277M. I hope they don't need to raise more money:
         | https://www.augmentcode.com/blog/augment-inc-raises-227-mill...
        
           | simple10 wrote:
           | It's AI. They'll likely end up raising a lot more money if
           | for no other reason than acquisitions and building a
           | financial mote. The AI companies with the most money in the
           | bank will likely win.
        
           | krainboltgreene wrote:
           | I ask that you look at the last 20 years of venture capital
           | and tell me if they're going to be able to stop.
        
             | mooreds wrote:
             | Sure, but not right now (since they just raised their B).
             | 
             | My guess is it was the second reason:
             | 
             | > wanting to grab a press cycle ahead of competitor
             | announcements to build the waitlist.
        
         | mritchie712 wrote:
         | also, why be in stealth for such an obvious product? There are
         | dozens of recently launched well funded competitors in addition
         | to all the incumbents that have added similar features.
        
           | silenced_trope wrote:
           | Right? I wonder what this will offer?
           | 
           | Marginal improvement over GitHub CoPilot or Cursor?
        
         | simple10 wrote:
         | Not to belabor the point, but for comparison sake, here's
         | another launch on HN today for an AI tool[1] that can create
         | frontend code. When I asked to make a landing page with
         | Augment's value proposition, it created a decent looking site
         | that included a demo video section and testimonials. I'm eager
         | to try out Augment to see if it can create it's own landing
         | page. lol
         | 
         | https://langcss.com/
        
       | russellbeattie wrote:
       | If anyone from Augment reads this, the careers@augmentcode.com
       | email address (from the "Apply Now" button on the careers page)
       | is bouncing with a "does not exist" error.
        
         | dalmaer wrote:
         | Sorry Russell! Fixing it now...
        
       | neilv wrote:
       | First Eric Schmidt colluded with executives at other large
       | employers to suppress software developer wages and job mobility.
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...
       | 
       | Now he's trying to get into the business of reducing software
       | developer headcount and professionalism, through copyright-theft-
       | laundering LLMs.
        
       | celeritascelery wrote:
       | > Even Copilot loses money, to the tune of around $20 to $80 a
       | month per user, according to The Wall Street Journal
       | 
       | Wow. Does that mean that once the VC money tries up that will be
       | the real cost of the products ($30-$90 a month)? That is much
       | less accessible than $10.
        
         | dudus wrote:
         | The cost is supposed to go down as LLMs become more efficient
         | and hardware efficiency goes up with time.
        
         | ipsum2 wrote:
         | WSJ is wrong. Autocomplete code models are small (5B param) and
         | very cheap. A single inference is roughly $0.000001.
        
           | acchow wrote:
           | Copilot uses GPT4 now
        
       | krainboltgreene wrote:
       | The only thing more hilarious than these articles is how funny it
       | will be when the companies either close because they can't
       | possibly solve "Most companies are dissatisfied with the programs
       | they produce and consume; software is too often fragile" as a
       | problem set _or_ they don 't make enough money to justify the $1B
       | valuation (and rising!).
       | 
       | The writers of this article don't even bother doing any
       | introspection into these claims or ideas. Is it important to know
       | that programmers have been using AI for the last 50 years? I'm
       | sure it isn't.
        
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       (page generated 2024-04-24 23:00 UTC)