AINeutralarXiv – CS AI · Feb 277/106
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Echoes of AI: Investigating the Downstream Effects of AI Assistants on Software Maintainability
A controlled study of 151 professional developers found that AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot provide significant productivity gains (30.7% faster completion) but don't impact code maintainability when other developers later modify the code. The research suggests AI-assisted code is neither easier nor harder for subsequent developers to work with.