More and more developers are using AI coding assistants in their daily work. GitHub Copilot got 400.000 subscribers in the first month and was praised by influential engineers, including Guido van Rossum.

Several studies confirm that AI assistants increase productivity, but other works raise concerns about their adoption.

The Free Software Foundation complained about the training process of Copilot, which allegedly violated the licensing of open-source code. The ACM warned that adopting coding assistants in education may lead to over-dependence and a decrease in learners' understanding. Finally, in a recent preprint, researchers from Stanford describe a controlled experiment suggesting that coding assistants may increase security-related bugs.

By providing an unbiased and independent review of the literature, this talk aims to inform the debate about the trustworthiness of AI coding assistants and to provide insights into their future evolution.

First delivered at Pisa.dev, 19th June 2023, Pisa, Italy
Held also at ODSC Europe, 14-15 June 2023, London, UK
Held also at WeAreDevelopers World Congress, 26-28 July 2023, Berlin, Germany
Recorded session at https://www.youtube.com/live/JHAqIgBo-q8?feature=share