07/04/23

🤖 AI Coders Are Coming For You

Global code-hosting powerhouse GitHub released a report on the economic impact of AI-powered coding assistants – notably their own product Copilot. Aside from the back-of-a-napkin calculation and claim that systems like Copilot will add a staggering $1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030, the report does have some fascinating data on user satisfaction and individual programmer’s productivity: Users accepted a solid 30% of code suggestions (a number which surely only will go up as the systems become more robust over time). GitHub’s researchers found, not surprisingly, that Copilot helps less experienced developers more – pointing toward a future in which more people will be able to solve their code-related challenges. Here’s the paper and a recording of a talk discussing the results.