John Biggs welcomed Hunter Brooks, the CEO and co-founder of Ellipsis, to the Grit Daily Startup Show to discuss his company and the interesting things it is doing for code development. The AI startup sums it up well themselves with the tagline, “Ellipsis will review your code (and do a good job!),” but there is more to it than simple code review. More than just having a second pair of eyes, this AI dev tool offers an extra set of hands.
“It converts technical instructions into working, tested code,” remarked Hunter during the conversation. What does that mean? Well, not only will Ellipsis review the code as it is changed by developers, but the fixes can also be assigned back to Ellipsis. So, not only will it find bugs, but it will also work to remove them.
While it might sound like a simple process, anyone who has worked as a developer or toyed around with code will tell you how frustrating even a minor bug can be. A single misplaced semicolon can be a problem that takes hours to find and solve if you’re working with a large code base, and more complex issues can be even worse.
Therefore, tools like Ellipsis can be instrumental in saving time, and when a few lines of code can be the difference between having a product ready for market or not, that’s a huge deal.
“The result is that teams who use the product ship about 13% faster,” remarked Hunter, honing in on the fact that Ellipsis catches all the “stupid” mistakes to make developers’ lives easier.
Moreover, because Ellipsis approaches the problem like a human developer, collecting information about a code base to deliver tested, working code. Other AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, do not have the same approach, leading to potential errors and the use of deprecated (outdated) code.
While the behind-the-scenes magic makes the process a little slower than going to, say, ChatGPT, Ellipsis sacrifices a small amount of speed to deliver only what works. That means accurate comments and direction from the product, which is not always guaranteed when it comes to other AI tools.
However, Hunter points out that this is not a replacement for human engineers. In fact, he believes they have higher job security than ever. Instead, Ellipsis and tools like it serve to cut out tedious work and open up more time for developers to focus on the more enjoyable aspects of their work, such as planning new features and utilizing their creative thinking skills.To hear more about
Ellipsis and how it works, make sure to listen to the full episode. And if you want to try Ellipsis for yourself, there is a 7-day free trial available on their website.
