| Cult of Mac

First ChatGPT-generated app hits the App Store

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5 Movies
5 Movies is an iPhone app that provides daily movie recommendations, and it was created using ChatGPT.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

5 Movies, likely the first iPhone app generated almost entirely by ChatGPT, was approved by Apple and published on the App Store late Thursday night.

Morten Just, an independent developer of Mac apps who’s based in Switzerland, guided ChatGPT through the creation of the movie-recommendation app. Just said he told the AI what he wanted, then pasted its output into an Xcode project, writing only an estimated 2% to 5% of the code himself. The chatbot even fixed bugs as Just pasted in error messages.

“What matters to me is creating software that is useful and solves real problems,” Just told Cult of Mac after his 5 Movies app went live. “If I can do that faster with AI, I will.”

How an indie dev used ChatGPT to build an iPhone app from scratch

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AI-generated image of a silver robot sitting at a desk with a MacBook Pro and iPhone
No artists were put out of a job in generating this image.
Image: DiffusionBee/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

Swiss developer Morten Just has built a whole slew of useful Mac apps under the name Otato. But his latest app wasn’t made by him at all: He asked ChatGPT to build it for him.

While Just earned his stripes as a professional programmer, he didn’t write a single line of code to create 5 Movies. It’s an iPhone app that gives you five daily movie recommendations, shows you the trailers on YouTube and tells you where you can stream the films. (It’s currently pending App Store approval.)

These days, artificial intelligence is making headlines for giving users powerful tools that can write essays, recreate impressive art and give technology journalists the heebie-jeebies. 5 Movies is proof that, with a big assist from AI, it only takes a few prompts and a basic understanding of Xcode to create an iPhone app without any coding yourself.

When I interviewed Morten earlier this week for Cult of Mac, I asked him how he got ChatGPT to build his app, what the generated code looked like, and how AI-coded apps will impact ordinary people as well as software developers.

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Get 130 hours of up-to-date Python training with this e-learning bundle.
Kick off your coding career with this $34.99 Python bundle.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

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Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

For anyone interested in a coding career, one of the most useful languages you can learn is Python. With the Premium Python Certification Bootcamp Bundle, you can study it in your own time, from just about anywhere. And during our Same You, New Job promotion, you can enroll in this $2,585 course for only $29.99 — no coupon needed.

Meet 3 Swift Student Challenge winners whose coding makes a difference

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This year’s Swift Student Challenge winners include (left to right) Josh Tint, Jones Mays II and Angelina Tsuboi. Their coding helps their communities.
This year’s Swift Student Challenge winners include (left to right) Josh Tint, Jones Mays II and Angelina Tsuboi. Their coding helps their communities.
Photo: Apple
WWDC22 - Brought to you by CleanMyMac X

Apple showcased three Swift Student Challenge winners Friday — out of 350 total — who solve problems in their communities with their coding skills.

The three teens were all first-time participants in the annual app-coding competition for young developers using Swift Playgrounds. The challenge takes place at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

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Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

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New Apple program will teach thousands of kids to code

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Using iPad and Apple’s Everyone Can Code curriculum, kids and teens at Boys & Girls Clubs in more than a dozen US cities will have the chance to learn the basics of app design and development.
Using iPad and Apple’s Everyone Can Code curriculum, kids and teens at Boys & Girls Clubs in more than a dozen US cities will have the chance to learn the basics of app design and development.
Photo: Apple

In celebration of Computer Science Education Week, Apple said Monday it launched a new program that will help tens of thousands of kids and teens at Boys & Girls Clubs in more than a dozen U.S. cities to learn how to code.

Apple’s coding education tools now extend from kindergarten to college

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Apple’s coding education tools now extend from from kindergarten to college
Teach small children about coding doesn’t have to involve screen time.
Photo: Apple

Apple released new coding education resources for elementary school students and educators on Tuesday. With them, the company now offers coding curriculum tools for kids all the way from kindergarten up to college.

In addition, teachers can try a new one-hour Inclusive App Design activity to introduce young children to the world of coding and app development.