Lately I have been using AI more and more in my codebase and that’s been a bit of a hit and miss if you ask me.
I reckon it’s an amazing tool that allows developers to truly optimise their workflow, however at times laziness take over and code reviews are not as frequent as they should be.
I really REALLY wanted to build something without using AI after having spent months and months getting a bit too complacent. And this is the first idea that came to mind. Of course to celebrate this occasion I went for a technology I hadn’t used in almost a decade: jQuery!!!
You can find the repo here: https://github.com/fccview/ackchyually-ai
You can play around with the tool on fccview.github.io/ackchyually-ai
Few disclaimers:
- I am a full stack javascript developer (with extensive knowledge of php and a very good grasp of shell). This means majority of the detection will be revolving around javascript, if you develop in a different language and you feel like you know AI patterns in that language PLEASE do create a pull request so we can make the detection even more accurate for other type of syntax!
- The tool uses MY OWN metrics, this is doing what I usually do to see if something is (in my opinion) been made with AI and barely reviewed by a human. It’s not gospel, it’s not a scientific method, it’s most definitely going to be flawed, so keep it with a grain of salt, it can always be improved and collaboration/community support will definitely help with it
- I don’t hate AI, on contrary I enjoy using it and I find value in not needing to “google it” whenever I hit a blocker, more times than not, AI has a valid solution that can be used, refined and applied properly. What I have mostly an issue with is people randomly generating code, not reviewing it and trying to sell you the moon when they barely understand the architecture of what they built
- Please do not make this post a fight between pro/against AI individuals, that’s not the aim of it
All the patterns I am using to identify possible AI code are here: https://github.com/fccview/ackchyually-ai/tree/main/data if you come up with more patterns/ideas and have more ideas on what to look for please reply here, open an issue and/or make a pull request, but at ONE CONDITION, do NOT use AI for this. It’d go against the core principle of this one pure little app I decided to build <3
I think comment ratio could be a fairly misleading metric. There are programs out there that requires a lot of context upfront that distills down to just a few lines of code, and especially those that are more academically interesting.
Hey! Yeah you are right, I may remove the >20% comments to line of code resulting in the code being 100% AI driven
That said, you are obviously referencing a very niche sector, the vast majority of software engineering doesn’t require that absurd amount of comments… I can’t stress enough how verbose a ratio of 20% comments to lines of code actually is lol
I don’t claim it to be common practice, just saying that it exists. That said, it may be “niche” in the grand scheme of things, but by no means do I think it’s small and insignificant. If anything, such codebases are typically foundational libraries in the giant stack of cards most other software engineers build.
See also antirez’s article about code comments https://www.antirez.com/news/124 You’ll notice how some of the snippets would’ve easily failed your criteria.