Thursday July 17, 2025
Using ChatGPT to Code
(Written for the non-technical reader)
I use large language models every day. They help me write, create charts, take notes, outline articles, summarize reports, and even generate questions for meetings. The list goes on. But there’s one area I’ve never leaned on AI for: coding.
The truth is, I haven’t written code in decades. My journey started in 1982, when I learned BASIC on a Commodore PET. Fifteen years later, I dabbled in simple HTML to design a website. Beyond that, I never developed much skill, and what little I knew has long since faded.
This week, I ran into a problem. I needed to update an old landing page. The site was a relic, built 10 years ago using a drag-and-drop website builder. Back then, it was exactly what we needed: a clean, simple page with text, graphics, and a copyright notice.
Fast forward to now. I wanted to remove an old email address. I logged into my hosting provider, expecting to tweak the page. To my dismay, the hosting company had discontinued their website builder and frozen the page in its hard-coded form.
This left me with three choices:
Hire a third party to make the edits,
Pay the hosting company to do it for me, or
Do nothing.
Option 3 was off the table, and the other two didn’t offer much appeal. Then I remembered something: ChatGPT can code. I’ve read countless articles about its capabilities but never tested them myself.
So I tried. I simply cut and pasted the existing HTML code into ChatGPT and asked it to remove the email address and its link. Seconds later, the model delivered clean, updated code, and then surprised me by asking:
“Would you like me to update the copyright year automatically using JavaScript?”
Of course, I said yes. Then came the real magic. ChatGPT followed up:
“Should I make additional improvements to optimize site speed and modernize the code while keeping the design the same?”
Why not? Here’s what it did in less than two minutes:
Removed deprecated tags like <font>
Consolidated multiple Google Fonts calls into a single line
Minimized inline styles and unnecessary attributes
Deferred JavaScript loading for better performance
Added loading="lazy" for images to speed up page load
Cleaned out unnecessary HTML comments and empty spans
Preserved the original layout and design for consistency
Compressed and optimized image sizes for faster delivery
I don’t even know what some of these improvements are, but once the “optimized'“ code was complete, I copied it from ChatGPT into my hosting platform, hit save, and… done.
For a professional developer, this would be a trivial task. For me, it was a revelation and incredibly exciting. It not only solved the problem but also saved time, money, and unnecessary frustration. Most importantly, it showed me, another real-time solution for using AI to get real work done.
Correction: Yesterday, I mentioned Cantor Equity Partners I’s plan to acquire 30,000 BTC; the correct ticker is $CEPO.
◾ The House has moved forward with the Genius and Clarity Acts after agreeing to include strong anti-CBDC provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act. (X)
◾ Coinbase $COIN is rebranding its Coinbase Wallet as “Base App,” integrating trading with social networking and chat features. (Coinbase)
◾ Institutional trading platform Talos is acquiring blockchain analytics firm Coin Metrics in a deal valued at over $100 million. (Fortune)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ Pakistan and El Salvador formed a knowledge-sharing partnership focused on digital currencies. (X)
◾ UK Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden has proposed banning crypto donations to political campaigns to prevent foreign influence in British politics. (TheGuardian)
◾ The European Union imposed sanctions on nine individuals and six entities for using digital assets to evade restrictions and disseminate pro-Russian propaganda. (Cointelegraph)
Financial Notices & Public Company Releases
◾ SRM Brands $SRM is rebranding as Tron Inc. and will trade under the ticker $TRON. (GlobeNewswire)
◾ Bit Digital $BTBT filed an filed an S-1 for its wholly owned HPC subsidiary, WhiteFiber. (PRNewswire)
◾ Riot Platforms $RIOT reduced its stake in Bitfarms $BITF to 9.8% after selling additional shares. (RiotPlatforms)
◾ DeFi Technologies $DEFT reported record SUI AUM of $63.5 million at its Valour division. (PRNewswire)
◾ Luxxfolio $LUXFD increased its Litecoin holdings to 20,084 LTC ($2 million). (Newsfile)
◾ Matador Technologies $MATAF announced a treasury strategy aimed at accumulating up to 6,000 bitcoin by 2027. (GlobeNewswire)
Restructuring, Hacks, Losses & Legal News
◾ Roger Ver is suing Spain to prevent his extradition to the United States on tax evasion charges. (Bloomberg)
◾ LQR House $YHC, a spirits and beverage e-commerce firm recently acquired by Robert Leshner, disclosed that its former board is facing a lawsuit for breach of fiduciary duties (SecFiling)
◾ Scale AI is laying off 14% of its workforce to cut what it calls “excessive bureaucracy.” (CNBC)
AI Announcements
◾ OpenAI plans to add a checkout feature to ChatGPT, enabling it to earn commissions on third-party transactions. (FT)
◾ xAI is seeking to lease data center capacity in Saudi Arabia. (Bloomberg)
◾ OpenAI has named Google Cloud as its latest cloud partner. (Reuters)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ Bank of America $BAC confirmed it is exploring the use of stablecoins as a payment solution. (Fool)
◾ World Liberty Financial tokens $WLFI are becoming tradable after initially serving only as governance tokens. (Reuters)
◾ A former UK National Crime Agency officer has been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing 50 bitcoin from the Silk Road. (Gov.uk)
◾ China Asset Management, the country’s second-largest fund firm, is launching a tokenized Yuan money market fund (Reuters)
◾ DeFi Technologies $DEFT, through its Valour division, is introducing an HBAR and ICP staking ETP on the SIX Swiss Exchange. (GlobeNewswire)
◾ Trump Media $DJT filed trademark applications for "Truth Social AI" and "Truth Social AI Search." (Tmtgcorp)