GitHub Copilot Is Creating a Generation of Copy-Paste Developers

Author(s): Abduldattijo

Originally published on Towards AI.

GitHub Copilot Is Creating a Generation of Copy-Paste Developers

I’ve been mentoring junior developers for eight years.

The article discusses the impact of GitHub Copilot on the development skills of new programmers, highlighting how dependency on AI for code generation is leading to a generation of developers who excel at coding but lack fundamental understanding. The author emphasizes the shift in how junior developers learn to program, often bypassing essential learning stages and struggling to grasp their own code. Various red flags for Copilot-dependent developers are outlined, including reliance on autocomplete and inability to explain code logic. The article also critiques the code quality generated by Copilot, which often favors verbosity over maintainability, ultimately urging the industry to adapt training and hiring practices to ensure that fundamental coding skills are not lost amidst the convenience of AI tools.

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Published via Towards AI