Well, well, well…
The Linux Foundation published a new study today around the impact of generative AI on open-source software development. One key takeaway is that ~25% of new open-source software pull requests amount to AI slop.
The new Linux Foundation research study found that GenAI has the potential of cutting open-source coding time in half for increased productivity. They also found 59% of project maintainers found growing GenAI-based contributions. The 50% productivity boost was found to be across all types of open-source software development tasks. 71% of OSS maintainers agreed that GenAI reduces barriers to entry.
Very concerning though, their research found that 25% of incoming pull requests are estimated to be low-quality AI slop across open-source projects. Presumably that number will, sadly, continue to rise as more newcomers and users embrace AI/LLMs for working on patches on their behalf.
Those curious can find the Linux Foundation Research report in full via LinuxFoundation.org.
One interesting thing I have noticed is that there seems to be a few people pointing to “studies”. Are you a developer?
Yes, I’m a developer. And people point to studies because the scientific method and proper data gathering procedures have shown in the long run to be much more reliable and accurate than vague feelings.