[HN Gopher] If AI is so good at coding where are the open source...
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       If AI is so good at coding where are the open source contributions?
        
       Author : thm
       Score  : 31 points
       Date   : 2025-05-15 18:24 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (pivot-to-ai.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (pivot-to-ai.com)
        
       | avbanks wrote:
       | This is exactly what I've been trying to point out, while LLM's
       | and coding agents are certainly helpful, they're extremely over-
       | hyped. We don't see a significant bump in open source
       | contributions, optimizations, and innovation in general.
        
       | lalith_c wrote:
       | maybe open source projects are prohibiting code generated by AI?
        
         | v3ss0n wrote:
         | Where?, name them
        
           | rpdillon wrote:
           | The article is actually pretty interesting. The only one
           | mentioned is Curl, and that's because of abuses by uneducated
           | developers using AI with no idea of what they're doing.
           | 
           | I actually think that's the central thesis of the article,
           | especially the last example that discusses the LLVM compiler
           | project getting raked over the coals after not engaging with
           | a non-developer that had used AI to make pull requests, and
           | admitted he had no idea what the code did.
           | 
           | Buried in the middle of the article is a paragraph that I
           | think sums up the main point well.
           | 
           | > More broadly, the very hardest problem in open source is
           | not code, it's people -- how to work with others. Some AI
           | users just don't understand the level they simply aren't
           | working at.
           | 
           | The point being that without a good programmer, AI is not
           | very useful.
        
       | MoonGhost wrote:
       | Probably because AI generated code cannot be copyrighted. And the
       | second reason it's not as good as AI sellers tell you.
        
       | SpecialistK wrote:
       | It's pretty obvious that AI code generation is not up to snuff
       | for mission-critical projects (yet? ever?) - it can prove handy
       | for small hobbyist projects with low stakes and it may provide
       | time-savings and alternative perspectives for those who
       | subsequently know how to sniff out BS.
       | 
       | But even airliner autopilot systems, which are much more mature
       | and have a proven track record, are not trusted as a replacement
       | for two trained experts to have final control.
       | 
       | The overall trend I've seen with AI creations (not just in
       | programming) is that the tech is cool and improving, but people
       | have trouble recognizing where its suitable and where it isn't.
       | I've found chatbots to be fantastic for recipes and cooking
       | advice, or banal conversations I couldn't have with real people
       | (especially after a drink...) and pretty shoddy for real
       | programming projects or creative endeavors. It isn't a panacea
       | and we'd benefit a lot from people recognizing that more.
        
       | jsheard wrote:
       | I keep seeing the users of AI-centric VSCode forks impotently
       | complaining about Microsoft withholding their proprietary
       | extensions from those forks, rather than using their newfound AI
       | superpowers to whip up open source replacements. Should be easy,
       | right? Right...?
        
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       (page generated 2025-05-15 23:01 UTC)