50% is pretty plausible to me, my own percentage probably hit that a few months ago.
I do think there’s a true sense in which AI code line counts are propped up by “extraneous” code—comments, extra-defensive error handling, and above all, tests. Especially for small functional changes, I’ve seen many cases where the “extraneous” code has 5x the line count of the “real” code.
But I’d still argue that the “extraneous” code typically provides real, if marginal, value.
50% is pretty plausible to me, my own percentage probably hit that a few months ago.
I do think there’s a true sense in which AI code line counts are propped up by “extraneous” code—comments, extra-defensive error handling, and above all, tests. Especially for small functional changes, I’ve seen many cases where the “extraneous” code has 5x the line count of the “real” code.
But I’d still argue that the “extraneous” code typically provides real, if marginal, value.