AI tools power one-third of new coding in the US by 2024: Study

By the end of 2024 around onethird of newly written blocks of computer programs in the US took support from AI systems gains in productivity however went to seasoned programmers according to an analysis of patterns seen on a widely used collaborative coding platformAIsupported coding was found to be high also in other countries including Germany and France with India catching up fastWe analysed more than 30 million Python programming language contributions from roughly 160000 developers on GitHub the worlds largest collaborative programming platform author Simone Daniotti from Austrias Complexity Science Hub and Utrecht University in the Netherlands saidTrained on vast amounts of text data generative AI can respond to a users requests in the natural language including writing and debugging computer codeFindings published in the journal Science also show that while AI usage is highest among less experienced programmers productivity gains go to seasoned developers generative AI can therefore widen existing gaps instead of levelling the playing fieldResearchers used a specially trained AI model to identify whether blocks of computer code were AIgenerated for instance via ChatGPT or GitHub CopilotThe team was able to track programming work across the globe in real time as GitHub records every step of coding additions edits improvements Python is among the most widely used programming languages in the worldIn the US AIassisted coding jumped from around five per cent in 2022 to nearly 30 per cent in the last quarter of 2024 author Frank Neffke who leads the transforming economies group at Complexity Science Hub saidWhile the share of AIsupported code is highest in the US at 29 per cent Germany reaches 23 per cent and France 24 per cent followed by India at 20 per cent which has been catching up fast he saidNeffke added that Russia 15 per cent and China 12 per cent still lagged behind at the end of the studyCurrently AI writes an estimated 29 per cent of Python functions in the US a shrinking lead over other countries the authors wroteThe study also showed that the use of generative AI increased programmers productivity by 36 per cent by the end of 2024That may sound modest but at the scale of the global software industry it represents a sizeable gain Neffke saidLess experienced programmers were seen to use generative AI in 37 per cent of their code compared to 27 per cent for experienced programmersHowever productivity gains are driven exclusively by experienced users the researchers foundBeginners hardly benefit at all Daniotti said adding that generative AI therefore does not automatically level the playing field it can widen existing gapsExperienced software developers were also seen to experiment more with new libraries and unusual combinations of existing software toolsThis suggests that AI does not only accelerate routine tasks but also speeds up learning helping experienced programmers widen their capabilities and more easily venture into new domains of software development author Johannes Wachs a faculty member at Complexity Science Hub saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever