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Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

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Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#41

Post by INTPenis »

I wouldn't say I'm old, but I suddenly fell into the coding agent rabbit hole when I had to write some Python automations against Google APIs.

Found myself having 3-4 different sites open for documentation, context switching between 3 different libraries. It was a lot to take in.

So I said, why not give AI a whirl. It helped me a lot! And since then I have published at least 6 different projects with the help of AI.

It refactors stuff for me, it writes boilerplate for me, most importantly it's great at context switching between different topics. My work is pretty broadly around DevOps, automation, system integration, so the topics can be very wide range.

So no I don't mind it at all, but I'm not old. The most important lesson I learned is that you never trust the AI. I can't tell you how often it has hallucinated things for me. It makes up entire libraries or modules that don't even exist.

It's a very good tool if you already know the topic you have it work on.

But it also hit me that I might be training my replacement. Every time I correct its mistakes I "teach" the database how to become a better AI and eventually it won't even need me. Thankfully I'm very old and will have retired by then.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#43

Post by bonoboTP »

ladyprestor wrote: post #12
csbrooks wrote: post #9

Is "vibe coding" synonymous with using AI code-generation tools now? I thought vibe coding meant very little direct interaction with the code, mostly telling the LLM what you want and iterating using the LLM. Which is fun and worth trying, but probably not a valid professional tool.

Yeah, for some reason the term has been used interchangeably for a while, which is making it very hard to have a conversation about it since many people think vibe coding is just using AI to assist you. From Karpathy's original post I understood it to be what you're describing. It is getting confusing.

The term sounds funny and quirky, so got overused. Also simply the term pushes emotional buttons on a lot of people so it's good for clickbait.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#44

Post by 9rx »

calibas wrote: post #20
9rx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Assuming they're like me, the planning is mostly done by a human, while the coding is largely done by the AI I've largely settled on the opposite. AI has become very good at planning what to do and explaining it in plain English, but its command of programming languages still leaves a lot to be desired.

It's good at checking plans, and helping with plans, but I've seen it make really really bad choices. I don't think it can replace a human architect.

Yes, much like many of the humans I have worked with, sometimes bad choices are introduced. But those bad choices are caught during the writing of the code, so that's not really that big of a deal when it does happen. It is still a boon to have it do most of the work.

And remains markably better than when AI makes bad choices while writing code. That is much harder to catch and requires pouring over the code with a fine tooth comb to the point that you may as well have just written it yourself, negating all the potential benefits of using it to generate code in the first place.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#45

Post by blast »

matula wrote: post #38

I've been at this for many years. If I want to implement a new feature that ties together various systems and delivers an expected output, I know the general steps that I need to take. About 80% of those steps are creating and stubbing out new files with the general methods and objects I know will be needed, and all the test cases. So... I could either spend the next 4 hours doing that, or spend 3 minutes filling out…

> I've also learned enough about LLMs that I know how to write that CLAUDE.md so it sticks to best practices.

Could you share some examples / tips about this?

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#46

Post by dang »

invl wrote: post #7
daft_pink wrote: post #3

Developers are lazy. Anything that makes development faster or easier is going to be welcomed by a good developer. If you find it is quicker not to use it then you might hate it, but I think it is probably better in some cases and worse in other cases.

as a developer my first priority is whether the software works, not whether it is fast or easy to develop

I think we can assume that what daft_pink means by "development" includes that the software works.

("Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#47

Post by baq »

INTPenis wrote: post #41

I wouldn't say I'm old, but I suddenly fell into the coding agent rabbit hole when I had to write some Python automations against Google APIs. Found myself having 3-4 different sites open for documentation, context switching between 3 different libraries. It was a lot to take in. So I said, why not give AI a whirl. It helped me a lot! And since then I have published at least 6 different projects with the help of AI.…

I love the split personality vibe here.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#48

Post by dang »

crowbahr wrote: post #4
binarymax wrote: post #2

I guess I’m an older developer. But I’ve come full circle and have gone back to hand coding after a couple years of fighting LLMs. I’m tired of coaxing their style and fixing their bugs - some of which are just really dumb and some are devious. Artisanal hand craft for me!

The article is saying older devs vibe code: I think you misunderstood

(Article was https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/older_developers_ai_c... when this was posted; we've since changed it)

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#49

Post by dang »

dfxm12 wrote: post #8

around a third of senior developers with more than a decade of experience are using AI code-generation tools such as Copilot, Claude, and Gemini to produce over half of their finished software, compared to 13 percent for those devs who've only been on the job for up to two years. A third? I would expect at least a majority based on the headline and tone of the article... Isn't this saying 66% are down on vibe coding?

(Article was https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/older_developers_ai_c... when this was posted; we've since changed it. We also changed the title.)

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#50

Post by WalterSear »

calibas wrote: post #16

I think they're being really loose with the term "vibe coding", and what they really mean is AI-assisted coding. Older devs are not letting the AI do everything for them. Assuming they're like me, the planning is mostly done by a human, while the coding is largely done by the AI, but in small sections with the human giving specific instructions. Then there's debugging, which I don't really trust the AI to do very wel…

When debugging, I'll coax the AI to determine what went wrong first - to my satisfaction - and have it go from there. Otherwise it's a descent into madness.
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