alt Hacker NewsI've noticed that it's super easy to end up with tons of extra lines of code when using AI. It will write code that's already available (whether that's in external libraries, internal libraries, or code already the same project). I don't mind trying to keep dependencies down, but I also don't want every project to have its own poorly tested CSV parser.
It also also often fails to clean up after itself. When you remove a feature (one that you may not have even explicitly asked for) it will sometimes just leave behind the unused code. This is really annoying when reviewing and you realize one of the files you read through is referenced nowhere.
You have to keep a close eye out to prevent bloat from these issues.
Absolutely. Even worse, when you ask AI to solve a problem it almost always adds code even if a better solution exists that removes code. If AI's new solution fails, you ask it to fix, it throws even more code, creates more mess, introduces new unnecessary states. Rinse, repeat ad infinitum.
I did this a few times as an experiment while knowing how a problem could be solved. In difficult situations Cursor always invariably adds code and creates even more mess.
I wonder if this can be mitigated somehow at the inference level because prompts don't seem to be helping with this problem.