In December , AI software system AlphaCode was entered into online coding competitions , and in contests with at least 5,000 participants , outperformed 45.7 % of programmers .

Generating code in Python or C ++, while filtering out any bad coding , DeepMind says AlphaCode can write computer programs at a level consistent with an average human programmer with about a year of training .

Below , we look at how AI could change how coding works forever .

1 . CODE COMPLETION

AI can be used to predict the next piece of code that a developer is likely to write , based on the context and the task at hand . This can save time and reduce the likelihood of errors . AI could also be used to analyse code and suggest changes that would make it more readable , maintainable , or efficient , such as renaming variables or extracting functions .

2 . DEBUGGING

AI can be used to automatically identify and fix bugs in code . For example , an AI system might be trained to recognise common programming errors and suggest a fix . Based on analysis , an AI system could also suggest possible fixes for identified errors , such as changing a line of code or adding a missing function call .

14 February 2023