LuisfJan 31

https://www.anthropic.com/research/AI-assistance-coding-skills

Anthropic's own fucking study lmao

"Yeah AI coding makes you worse at it"

like
significantly so

This tracks with my personal experience in my previous job.

Rapid deskilling when they started using llm "prompt engineering" for the code they pushed.

Within weeks they basically had stopped being able to explain what they were pushing during code review.

Show threadLuisfJan 31

This mixed with that study from last year where the results were "programmers think they are 20% more efficient, in fact they were 20% slower and worse" just seem to indicate that vibe coding is uh

bad
for both the programmer, and what is being programmed.

Like, really fucking bad.

Quick link to article about

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/07/study-finds-ai-tools-made-open-source-software-developers-19-percent-slower/

Study finds AI tools made open source software developers 19 percent slower

Coders spent more time prompting and reviewing AI generations than they saved on coding.

Ars Technica
Show threadZack WeinbergJan 31
@Loosf so uh I don't have the mental bandwidth to read the article right now but I'm stuck in an argument with someone who insists that the "programmers think they are 20% more efficient, in fact they were 20% slower and worse" thing applies only to _inexperienced_ programmers ... does this break down the observed effect by level of initial experience at all?
Show threadPaul Khuong
@zwol @Loosf they studied a cohort of junior programmers with not necessarily a lot of python exposure (at least once a week), and no prior exposure to a complex library (Trio).
Jan 31 at 4:23pmWeb
Show threadZack WeinbergJan 31

@pkhuong @Loosf hm, so there may actually be a gap in the research.

Personally I don't see any reason to think LLM use _wouldn't_ also degrade the abilities of experienced programmers but that's not going to get me out of the argument :-(

Show threadToby HaynesFeb 2

@zwol @pkhuong @Loosf

Here's the experience of a more senior developer. https://mikelovesrobots.substack.com/p/wheres-the-shovelware-why-ai-coding

Lots to think about here. Between these articles on whether AI coding actually speeds things up at all, and Pluralistics article ...

https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/06/1000x-liability/

To me, quality is what distinguishes good products from bad. Quality appears to be at risk from AI coding.

Where's the Shovelware? Why AI Coding Claims Don't Add Up

78% of developers claim AI makes them more productive. 14% say it's a 10x improvement. So where's the flood of new software? Turns out those productivity claims are bullshit.

Mike Judge
Show threadZack WeinbergFeb 2
@TobyHaynes @pkhuong @Loosf oh that looks like exactly what i needed, thanks
Show threadLuisfFeb 3
@zwol @pkhuong @TobyHaynes thank you for these links
They're very useful