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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

#731

Post by rodw »

usrnm wrote: post #666
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Of course it is. What should a button on a screen look like, after all, it has absolutely nothing to do with a large mechanical button from the 80s the old designs tried to emulate. In fact, such buttons are becoming rare even in the physical world, the younger generation is more and more accustomed to touch buttons for operating all kinds of machinery around them. So "like a button" is very much an age thing

Looking like a "touch button" is still looking like a button. Some indication that an element is tappable is still useful.

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

#732

Post by dgellow »

xnx wrote: post #331
storus wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a complete takeover of technically incompetent management that feels like it can finally execute their ideas to the fullest instead of relying on those pesky swengs with their obstructions, complaints and problems. We'll soon get the management utopia everywhere.

On the other hand, no one to place the blame on if management does it themselves.

The recent cases of companies who deleted their prod DBs while using LLMs are blaming “the rogue AI”. So it seems you can just blame AI lab companies and folks roll with it. Even better, they asked it to generate its own apology, no need to spend time trying to explain to your customers why everything is gone

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

#733

Post by marricks »

somebehemoth wrote: post #349
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…

I think the constructive criticism is best directed at whatever process you are following. That process allowed a very visible user facing change in a widely used piece of software. How did this change make it to production without some process catching the impact of this change? Was there really no internal discussion from a code review at least? This seems hard for me to believe. I expect more from Microsoft.

Also, who/what group is pushing for this change internally and what is the opinion of the team implementing it? What is the road map and vision for AI in VSCode?

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

#734

Post by tuetuopay »

Pay08 wrote: post #690
yankohr wrote: post #84

This feels like the modern version of 'Sent from my iPhone' but much more invasive. Git commits are legal and technical records. Falsifying who authored a piece of code just to pump up AI usage stats is a huge breach of trust and it is disappointing to see Microsoft prioritize branding over the integrity of the developer's log. I expect my IDE to record what happened, not what the marketing department wants people to…

I've never heard of git commits being used in a legal case, do you have any examples?

I don't know if it's been tested in court, but that's the rationale behind the Signed-off-by lines the kernel requires in all patches sent. It's a way to tell the (legal) ownership of a piece of code.

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

#736

Post by slenk »

apexalpha wrote: post #593
tln wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, messing with commits is more invasive than messages. It gets worse: "Sent from my iPhone" appears in the authoring view, and you can delete it. Co-authored-by: NEVER appears in the commit message UI - it is added without the user even seeing it.

My Claude Code just puts it in the commit which anyone can read before pushing. Is that not the case here?

Anthropic documents how to turn it off, though, and shows you in the commit message preview

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

#737

Post by lelanthran »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #729
lelanthran wrote: post #728

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I write "I own lelanthran's car", does that make me the legal owner of your car? If I counter sign agreement, certainly. How do you think that sales of both movable and immovable property work?

That's not what we were talking about. We were talking about a third party modifying your document without your consent (and sometimes even without your knowledge). You write git commit "Fix bug" and then a third party swoops in the night and modifies that with "Co-authored by: Microsoft".

> That's not what we were talking about. We were talking about a third party modifying your document without your consent (and sometimes even without your knowledge). You write git commit "Fix bug" and then a third party swoops in the night and modifies that with "Co-authored by: Microsoft".

Right, and how is a court supposed to differentiate between the cases when copilot was not sharing your typewriter and cases when it was?

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

#738

Post by jazzypants »

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…

I don't think anyone at Microsoft truly understands how much they have ruined their reputation. This won't be fixed again by open-sourcing a few tools. Fool me once, etc.

I will fight against any Microsoft tooling being used at every company until I die. This is unforgivable.

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

#739

Post by giovannibonetti »

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…

>There was a time that Google cared deeply about UX. Now, on macOS Google remaps CMD-G in Google Docs to launch some LLM bullshit

That reminds me of a few years ago when Android phones replaced the behavior of "long press sleep/power button" from "shut down" to "ask AI about what's in your screen". Perhaps a manager got promoted somewhere for "raising AI usage" in Android phones.

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

#740

Post by jazzypants »

morpheos137 wrote: post #332
storus wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a complete takeover of technically incompetent management that feels like it can finally execute their ideas to the fullest instead of relying on those pesky swengs with their obstructions, complaints and problems. We'll soon get the management utopia everywhere.

Perennial HN trope: all bad tech evolutions are management's fault. Engineers are flawless paragons of technical purity.

Of course there are shitty engineers, but they aren't allowed to do anything without shitty management.
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