AI slows coders

AI
Author

Didelphis

Published

July 20, 2025

Open source programmers took 19 percent more time to write code with artificial intelligence than without, a study released July 10 found.

That’s contrary to the conventional wisdom that artificial intelligence speeds up coding.

The study involved 16 experienced open source programmers who participated in a randomized controlled trial in early 2025. Because it evaluated only a handful of people who used only a few of the available AI tools, the study is hardly representative of all coders.

It doesn’t necessarily follow that AI will slow less-experienced programmers or programmers working on different code.

AI models will also continue to improve.