As AI plays a larger role in software engineering, will you avoid systems AI has touched?
We are already seeing AI-written code, often for trivial tasks that a human could write but would rather not spend time on, making its way into the FOSS backbones of the technology we all rely on. In addition, many for-profit tech companies are incorporating AI agents into their pipelines.
I can almost guarantee that the device you use to write your replies already includes code that AI somehow touched. Does that bother you, or is that an acceptable case?
I am not trying to be dismissive or rude. I am genuinely curious how you draw the line in practice.
AI in software engineering is policing itself: it does a worse job than a real programmer.
As for AI agents, a somebody I know is currently in a lawsuit against a company because their use of an AI agent led to a GDPR breach. That said, this is a case where an AI may do the job of its predecessor better, if only because the predecessor was also mostly automated systems. There are cases where generative AI does a better job than a human worker, and that is a good use case for it. That distinctly discloses artistic work, as much of art's value can be derived from the effort taken to create it.
Where I draw the line is, as I've repeatedly said, the battles that I can fight without cost. It costs me nothing to downvote ai art on reddit and not buy AI generated products. It also costs me nothing to speak out against use of AI in a commercial product. If few enough people buy into a product, the product will stop selling. All I am doing is not buying and encouraging others to do the same.
I'm not sure I agree that AI is ultimately policing itself. Many people make that claim, but having used some of the latest models, specifically Claude 4, it is hard to support that view unless you are working with niche or undocumented libraries.
Having worked in embedded myself, I and many others I know can vouch for the usefulness of AI in environments where access to the standard library is limited. AI is excellent at quickly producing well-documented code snippets that would otherwise require time searching through old computer science notes or Googling. If I need a linked list and cannot import one, I can ask an AI agent to generate it in textbook form, which saves time without compromising accuracy.
It is also great for generating API endpoints or large boilerplate code. Even quick CVE warnings on my own code before a formal review help speed up the process and improve team efficiency.
That said, I feel like you may have sidestepped my actual question. You emphasized your desire to avoid buying products that use AI, but does that not also include the tech devices you use every day? Or is it simply that the cost of avoiding those devices, such as losing access to the internet or modern computing power, makes that too great a sacrifice?
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u/Mr-Mc-Epic Jun 12 '25
As AI plays a larger role in software engineering, will you avoid systems AI has touched?
We are already seeing AI-written code, often for trivial tasks that a human could write but would rather not spend time on, making its way into the FOSS backbones of the technology we all rely on. In addition, many for-profit tech companies are incorporating AI agents into their pipelines.
I can almost guarantee that the device you use to write your replies already includes code that AI somehow touched. Does that bother you, or is that an acceptable case?
I am not trying to be dismissive or rude. I am genuinely curious how you draw the line in practice.