> We further find that the percentage of 'added code' and 'copy/pasted code' is increasing in proportion to 'updated,' 'deleted,' and 'moved 'code. In this regard, AI-generated code resembles an itinerant contributor, prone to violate the DRY-ness [don't repeat yourself] of the repos visited.
Couldn’t this equally be explained by the cost of refactoring becoming incredibly cheap? If most of your code is generated, and you don’t have to make the investment of hand crafting everything, aren’t you naturally going to be regularly replacing vast tracts? Obviously the trend may have implications, but in large part aren’t we just seeing the impact of code cheapening? Serious question.
Couldn’t this equally be explained by the cost of refactoring becoming incredibly cheap? If most of your code is generated, and you don’t have to make the investment of hand crafting everything, aren’t you naturally going to be regularly replacing vast tracts? Obviously the trend may have implications, but in large part aren’t we just seeing the impact of code cheapening? Serious question.