Generative AI can write, draw, compose music, and even create videos… but it can also code! Whether the results live up to expectations is anyone's guess, but when it comes to software development, the use of artificial intelligence has become so common that a term has been coined to encompass the practice: "vibe coding."
A turning point for Xcode
What is still just a buzzword is a way of programming based on the suggestions of an AI bot, without necessarily writing every line yourself. In any case, Apple has reportedly partnered with Anthropic to develop a "vibe coding" platform that Bloomberg presents as a "new version" of Xcode, the manufacturer's app development software.
This version of Xcode would integrate Anthropic's Claude templates, which are known for their ability to produce fairly high-quality code. The tool includes a discussion space for giving instructions, whether to generate lines of code, to modify them, or to debug them. Developers can also test user interfaces, which is often a headache to do manually.
Apple seems poised to offer this new feature to its internal engineers, without deciding yet whether to launch it to the general public. Seeing the manufacturer using language models other than its own in Xcode is a bit surprising, especially since it presented a tool last year that closely resembles it: Swift Assist.
A tool that is still not available to developers. According to feedback from early testers, Swift Assist is not fully developed: the system is said to produce hallucinations... Worse still, it is said to slow down development. This partnership with Anthropic would have the merit of removing this bottleneck, even if nothing prevents Apple from launching the two tools in parallel.
Apple is gradually opening up to other AI models that compete with its own. ChatGPT can take over from Siri when the assistant is running out of steam (too often). Gemini could also appear as a reinforcement of Apple Intelligence later this year.
Source: Bloomberg
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