On Wed, 4 Feb 2026 at 17:29, Peter Stahlecker <[email protected]> wrote: > > I had wondered before, why anybody would push a PR he/she did not do > him/herself -and might not even understand- , but Jason told me people are so > eager to get into GSoC, > and they need at least one PR merged.
I think it is important to understand that AI gives people false confidence. The people doing this think that they do understand the code. They also believe that the code made with the help of the AI is better than what they would have produced without the AI. Actually the real problem here is not that they used AI to write the code, it is that they used AI instead of *reading* any of the existing code. If you didn't have AI you would have to read the code before you could write anything. The AI gives them some little bit of code that looks understandable and they think they understand it but you can't truly understand a small piece of code without understanding all the code around it. The true understanding of some code is not just understanding just what it does but why it is the way it is rather than any of a number of alternatives that might superficially seem similar in the same context. You don't get that understanding if the AI takes you straight to seemingly working code. There are empirical studies now comparing programmers using AI and not using AI. It has been shown more than once I think that even experienced programmers using AI will produce more bugs but at the same time have more confidence in the code. It has also been shown that people/teams using AI can have reduced productivity but at the same time believe that their productivity has increased. Have you ever tried using something like ChatGPT Peter? ChatGPT is a sickening thing to talk to. I don't think that people using LLMs to write emails and things understand just how much its language upsets me. I imagine that you can have a conversation like: You: Hey ChatGPT I want to make a PR for GSOC and I want to fix issue 12345. I think maybe we can fix it by adding some code to make the thing negative. ChatGPT: Wow that is an amazing idea Peter -- you are a genius! I'll write some code for that write now. Here you go: (lots of generic samey looking code) This will certainly fix the issue based on your very innovative and creative suggestion and the code is * professionally written * passes all relevant requirements and coding standards This code based on your insightful idea will make an excellent PR -- the SymPy maintainers will surely love this PR! -- Oscar -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sympy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CAHVvXxS0hK837LsvtrGGaA66dR_%3DzgGiE0c534DiJNk7-Lxk1w%40mail.gmail.com.
