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Microsoft Generates 30% of Code with AI — Fearmonger or Good News for Software Engineering Outlook?

AI-Powered Coding at Microsoft: Transforming Software Development

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently disclosed that AI now writes between 20% and 30% of the company’s code across various projects, depending on the programming language. This revelation, made during a conversation with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the LlamaCon AI developer event, underscores the growing role of AI in software development.

AI’s Integration into Microsoft’s Development Process

Microsoft has been integrating AI into its software development lifecycle, utilizing tools like GitHub Copilot and OpenAI Codex to assist developers. These AI systems are capable of generating code snippets, performing code reviews, and even writing entire functions based on natural language prompts.

For example, a developer might input a prompt like:

# Prompt: Write a function to calculate the factorial of a number

The AI could then generate:

def factorial(n):
    if n == 0:
        return 1
    else:
        return n * factorial(n - 1)