Over 20% of Indians on GitHub Used AI to Write Python Functions: Study
A study published by the University of Utrecht, the Complexity Science Hub (Vienna), Corvinus University of Budapest, and the HUN-REN Centre for Economic and Regional Studies in Hungary outlined the use of AI to write code globally and its economic impact. The authors trained a neural classifier to detect AI-generated Python functions in 80 million GitHub commits by 200,000 developers over the past six years. “By December 2024, AI wrote an estimated 30.1% of Python functions from US contributors, versus 24.3% in Germany, 23.2% in France, 21.6% in India, 15.4% in Russia and 11.7% in China,” read the study. The authors also said that newer GitHub users use more AI than veterans, and using AI 30% of the time raises quarterly commits by 2.4%. By combining wage data with estimates of the amount of programming done in almost 900 US occupations, the study calculates that AI generates $9.6-14.4 billion annually in the US software sector. The researchers thoroughly trained the neural classifier using a vast dataset to ensure it correctly identifies AI-generated Python functions. They collected human-written Python functions from 2018 onwards, covering diverse examples across different time periods. They also created synthetic AI-written functions using a two-step process: one LLM described human functions, and another LLM generated corresponding code based on these descriptions. The researchers then used GraphCodeBERT, a cutting-edge model, to tokenise and embed the code before fine-tuning it into a classifier. The model was assessed with an out-of-sample ROC AUC score of 0.964, indicating high detection precision.
By combining wage data with estimates of the amount of programming done in almost 900 US occupations, the study calculates that AI generates $9.6-14.4 billion annually in the US software sector.
By combining wage data with estimates of the amount of programming done in almost 900 US occupations, the study calculates that AI generates $9.6-14.4 billion annually in the US software sector. 
["AI (Artificial Intelligence)"]
["programming_languages:R", "AI", "Git", "BERT", "Python", "llm_models:BERT", "programming_languages:Python", "GitHub", "R", "AI (Artificial Intelligence)"]
["AI", "Python", "R", "Git", "GitHub", "BERT", "llm_models:BERT", "programming_languages:Python", "programming_languages:R"]
Supreeth is an engineering graduate who is curious about the world of artificial intelligence and loves to write stories on how it is solving problems and shaping the future of humanity.