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Ask HN: How to deal with AI generated sloppy code

13 points by ilrwbwrkhv

by thelostdragon

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by al_borland

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> It's also hard to tell them not to use AI because the code does work.
If they are still looking to have humans maintain the code, and hire people to optimize it, the at use case needs to be taken into account. From that perspective, I would argue that it doesn’t work.
You could/should charge a higher rate for companies that have a bigger mess to clean up. A cleaning crew is going to charge more to clean up a hoard than to do some light cleaning and re-organizing. The price reflects the effort involved, and I don’t see this as any different. They can choose to pay to write clean code up front, or pay for it later with difficult or impossible maintenance. The choice is theirs.
Personally, everyone on my team hates AI and it’s rarely used. I probably use it the most, which is maybe 4 or 5 times a month to write a single line here or there, mostly to save me a search for syntax.

by talldayo

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> So how are you all handling this problem?
Increasing my per-hour rate until I'm comfortable spending hundreds of hours unspaghettifying code.

by swah

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I don't have this problem, but Cursor was an excellent companion yesterday while I was scripting in Python. It was always ready with function suggestions—sometimes just typing the function name and hitting tab twice. Other times, I used cmd+k for descriptions. What worries me is that writing functions is easy, but keeping everything in my head to write more functions later, especially after 20 days, is challenging.
(When I tried with Zig it was a disaster..)

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by anonzzzies

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by meiraleal

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That's actually how the demand for software engineers will only grow with AI. CEOs will develop terrible but successful MVPs and will soon need to hire a competent professional to go the next mile

by moomoo11

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I just hope it leads to non-technical people not meddling in or starting tech startups where they have no f'ing idea what they're talking about or doing.
Stick to the scams and whatever else, or go work at a PE firm.
Source: my experience working with such types.

by mergisi

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Dealing with AI-generated code complexity is a common challenge. AI tools can quickly produce functional code, but often at the cost of readability and maintainability due to excessive abstractions and indirection. One effective approach is to establish strict coding standards and incorporate thorough code reviews to simplify and optimize the generated code.
As the founder of AI2sql, I’ve found that balancing AI assistance with human oversight is crucial. By setting clear guidelines and regularly refactoring the code, it's possible to harness the speed of AI while maintaining a clean and manageable codebase.