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VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

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Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#571

Post by dmitriv »

golem14 wrote: post #375

I miss in this whole thread why this is happening. Presumably to be transparent whether code has been co-written by AI? What's in it for Microsoft? If we accept that AI can't copyright or own IP rights on something, then why? I have a sneaky suspicion that there's some lobbying in the works to overturn that ruling going forward. In the past, it was OK to build models from copyrighted data etc one might have found on…

The change was about helping teams ensure AI-generated code is attributed in commits - nothing to do with copyrights and the like. If you don't have to take my word for it - query VS Code repo for changes and issues that went into implementing this and you will see.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#572

Post by dmitriv »

KyleBerezin wrote: post #253

quote: "Thank you all for your feedback, professional or otherwise. Sorry about the regression. I will work on fixing this in 1.119. There is a number of issues with the Co-Author functionality: It should never have been enabled when disableAIFeatures is on. It should not add attribution to changes that were not done by AI. We need to make sure it receives a more test coverage before change the default. If you have a…

Agreed, fixed disableAiFeatures in my PR: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/pull/313931 Will work on making it better later.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#573

Post by gizzlon »

galonk wrote: post #546
freedomben wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wanted to say, while I think this feature was a bad idea, I sincerely applaud your willingness to post here, knowing you'll get roasted. Seriously brave and commendable.

They pretended to be fronting up but didn’t respond to anything after that. Doesn’t seem very commendable to me.

their comments are dead, probably related to it being a new account

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#574

Post by nicbou »

janice1999 wrote: post #69
rsynnott wrote: post #26

One fascinating thing about the whole AI phenomenon is how incredibly hostile it is to _standards_. Whether something works properly, or is ethical, or is true, no longer matters at all; all that matters is "pls use our AI". Microsoft spent literal decades rehabilitating their reputation. And then set fire to the whole thing in an offering to their robot gods. And it's not just them. There was a time that Google care…

They invested billions. They're scared.

Good thing they are holding the economy at gunpoint.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#575

Post by zelphirkalt »

Aerolfos wrote: post #537
alemanek wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Changing the default behavior for all of your users with no notification is pretty unforgivable. Even if this feature worked correctly, it obviously doesn’t, this should at minimum be a prompt after upgrade to let the user confirm that this is what they want. But honestly should be opt in for those that want it. To have it silently just start adding marketing copy to git commit messages is pretty bad. To have that ad…

> Changing the default behavior for all of your users with no notification is pretty unforgivable. I noticed that as soon as you make a bug report/feature request on VSCode's repo, you instantly get someone's OpenClaw agent with an automated pull request that sometimes wants to change defaults in the main codebase Looks like AI is really trigger-happy with that, with zero understanding or care that there's thousands…

And then they apparently posted an alibi "I'm sorry" here. Or maybe it is genuine, but the choice is between incompetence and fake "I'm sorry". Where is QA?

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#576

Post by jstanley »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #495
nsagent wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for any future mea culpa, I'd recommend not hedging with comments like this one: > As folks mentioned here - many similar tools do this as well. It's really doubtful they have the same behavior people are complaining about here: namely including the authored by Copilot statement when it wasn't used (or even enabled).

Anthropic does by default. I had to put “no co-authored by lines in commits, ever” into my global settings. That’s pretty close to “included when it wasn’t used (or even enabled)” since it’s opt-in by default and you have to explicitly say no. It’s not even clear where to turn it off, I just rely on the AI to figure out not to do it.

Maybe I misunderstand you, how is Claude doing commits where you don't use Claude?

That is a very different case to VS Code which is something you can in fact use without Copilot.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#577

Post by 7734128 »

harambee4ever wrote: post #260
mister_mort wrote: post #41

This is pumping someone's metrics up inside of Microsoft, somewhere . The question is - will their boss revert it or encourage it when they discover the source of the stats being juiced?

My first thought when I read this was that it was accidental. But the title of the PR looks like that they aren't even trying to hide it

Never attribute malice as mistakes when it comes to Microsoft.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#578

Post by nicbou »

dmitriv wrote: post #268

I am the person who approved this PR and would like to acknowledge and apologize for the mistake of turning this feature on by default without sufficient upfront validation. There was no ill intent by evil corporation, but rather a desire to support functionality that some customers expect of VS Code w.r.t. AI-generated code. As folks mentioned here - many similar tools do this as well. Obviously, it should not be on…

> There was no ill intent

Only callous disregard for your users

> many similar tools do this as well

But since we have normalised that, it’s okay?

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#579

Post by gizzlon »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #454
nhinck2 wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a desire to support functionality that some customers expect of VS Code w.r.t. AI-generated code Literally who?

No one, which is why he refuses to reply further to any of these inquiries.

they do, at least to some degree, but their comments are dead. You'll see them if you turn on show-dead somewhere

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#580

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

theK wrote: post #559
isityettime wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people who think of themselves as able-bodied never think to poke around in the Accessibility sections of their settings menus. But it turns out that accessibility options are for everyone; people should really think of and evaluate them as first class tools more often

Or,are we just getting older and these things suddenly matter?

A button looking like a button isn't an age (of the reader) thing.
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