- 96% of developers don’t fully trust AI, 52% don’t always check for errors
- The majority of ChatGPT and Perplexity users access AI through a personal account
- Bucking Trends, Data Exposure and Vulnerabilities Are Big Concerns
Sonar’s latest State of Code Developer Survey found that almost all (96%) developers say they don’t fully trust AI-generated code to be functionally correct, despite widespread use, and worse, many don’t properly verify their AI-generated code.
Currently, around 42% of developers’ code is estimated to be generated by AI (a significant increase from just 6% in 2023), but this figure is expected to rise to around 65% by 2027.
And yet, not even half (48%) of them still check AI work before committing, highlighting a huge potential for introducing bugs and vulnerabilities.
Developers don’t review AI-generated code before using it
While three in five (59%) say they put “moderate” or “substantial” effort into verifying AI-generated code, two in five (38%) agree that verification takes more time than equivalent human-written code. And because the generated code uses a whole load of internet data to inform its output, three in five (61%) agree that it often looks correct, but isn’t.
This study corroborates another recent study published by CodeRabbit, revealing that AI generates 1.7 times more problems (and 1.7 times more major problems) than humans.
Current trends show that AI tools are most used in prototyping (88%) and internet production (83%) software, which may not seem so critical, but almost as many use them for customer-facing applications (73%). GitHub Copilot (75%) and ChatGPT (74%) are by far the most used assistants.
But taking this information a step further, Sonar found that more than one in three developers (35%) use their own personal account rather than one approved by their work – a figure that rises to 52% among ChatGPT users and 63% for Perplexity fans. This presents yet another risk to potentially confidential or sensitive company information.
In fact, despite what Sonar found about developers’ use of AI, data exposure (57%), small vulnerabilities (47%), and severe vulnerabilities (44%) are among the biggest concerns.
“Generating code faster is only half the battle,” the report concludes. “The real value comes from the ability to effectively trust and verify that code.”
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