Today, there are countless AI coding assistants available that promise to lighten developers' loads.
It's an issue that software development firms and solo coders are only beginning to come to grips with.
Either use AI coding assistants and accept the consequences, or forego them and risk falling behind the developers that do use them.
The first way to mitigate the risks that come with AI coding assistants is to thoroughly investigate any tool you're considering before you use it in production.
The best way to do this is to use the tool in parallel with a few of your development projects to see how the results stack up to your human-created code.
This simple vetting procedure should let you choose an AI coding assistant that's suited to the tasks you plan to give it.
If those shortcomings are insignificant, you can use what you learn to clean up any code that comes from the tool.
If they're significant, you can move on to evaluating another tool instead. Beef up Your Code Review and Validation Processes.
Next, it's essential to beef up your code review and validation processes before you begin using an AI coding assistant in production.
This should include multiple static code analyses passed on all the code you generate, especially any that contain AI-generated code.
Your code review and validation processes should also include dynamic testing as soon as each project reaches the point that it's feasible.
This will help you evaluate the security of your code as it exists in the real world, including any user interactions that could introduce additional vulnerabilities.
The developers of AI coding assistants are always making changes aimed at increasing the reliability and security of the code their tools generate.
It's in their best interest to do so since any flawed code traced back to their tool could lead to developers dropping it in favor of a competitor.
It's important to keep track of any updates to your AI coding assistant change.
You should never assume that an updated version of the tool you're using will still be suited for your specific coding needs.
If you can't afford to be without your chosen AI coding assistant for long enough to repeat the vetting process you started with, continue using the older version.
You should have the new version perform the same coding tasks and compare the output.
Realistically, AI code generation isn't going away.
We've not yet reached the point where human coders should blindly trust the work product of their AI counterparts.
This Cyber News was published on feeds.dzone.com. Publication date: Fri, 26 Jan 2024 20:43:06 +0000