zlacker

Watching AI drive Microsoft employees insane

submitted by laiysb+(OP) on 2025-05-21 10:57:08 | 1088 points 537 comments
[view article] [source] [go to bottom]

NOTE: showing posts with links only show all posts
◧◩
2. jshear+E[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 11:04:40
>>cebert+t
> Do we know for a fact there are Microsoft employees who were told they have to use CoPilot and review its change suggestions on projects?

It wouldn't be out of character, Microsoft has decided that every project on GitHub must deal with Copilot-generated issues and PRs from now on whether they want them or not. There's deliberately no way to opt out.

https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/159749

Like Googles mandatory AI summary at the top of search results, you know a feature is really good when the vendor feels like the only way they can hit their target metrics is by forcing their users to engage with it.

4. diggan+L1[view] [source] 2025-05-21 11:18:44
>>laiysb+(OP)
Interesting that every comment has "Help improve Copilot by leaving feedback using the or buttons" suffix, yet none of the comments received any feedback, either positive or negative.

> This seems like it's fixing the symptom rather than the underlying issue?

This is also my experience when you haven't setup a proper system prompt to address this for everything an LLM does. Funniest PRs are the ones that "resolves" test failures by removing/commenting out the test cases, or change the assertions. Googles and Microsofts models seems more likely to do this than OpenAIs and Anthropics models, I wonder if there is some difference in their internal processes that are leaking through here?

The same PR as the quote above continues with 3 more messages before the human seemingly gives up:

> please take a look

> Your new tests aren't being run because the new file wasn't added to the csproj

> Your added tests are failing.

I can't imagine how the people who have to deal with this are feeling. It's like you have a junior developer except they don't even read what you're telling them, and have 0 agency to understand what they're actually doing.

Another PR: https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/pull/115732/files

How are people reviewing that? 90% of the page height is taken up by "Check failure", can hardly see the code/diff at all. And as a cherry on top, the unit test has a comment that say "Test expressions mentioned in the issue". This whole thing would be fucking hilarious if I didn't feel so bad for the humans who are on the other side of this.

◧◩
6. mtmail+U1[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 11:20:04
>>cebert+t
Depends on team but seems management is pushing it

from >>44031432

"From talking to colleagues at Microsoft it's a very management-driven push, not developer-driven. Friend on an Azure team had a team member who was nearly put on a PIP because they refused to install the internal AI coding assistant. Every manager has "number of developers using AI" as an OKR, but anecdotally most devs are installing the AI assistant and not using it or using it very occasionally. Allegedly it's pretty terrible at C# and PowerShell which limits its usefulness at MS."

"From reading around on Hacker News and Reddit, it seems like half of commentators say what you say, and the other half says "I work at Microsoft/know someone who works at Microsoft, and our/their manager just said we have to use AI", someone mentioned being put on PIP for not "leveraging AI" as well. I guess maybe different teams have different requirements/workflows?"

◧◩◪
21. diggan+b3[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 11:37:03
>>mtmail+U1
> Depends on team but seems management is pushing it

The graphic "Internal structure of tech companies" comes to mind, given if true, would explain why the process/workflow is so different between the teams at Microsoft: https://i.imgur.com/WQiuIIB.png

Imagine the Copilot team has a KPI about usage, matching the company OKRs or whatever about making sure the world is using Microsoft's AI enough, so they have a mandate/leverage to get the other teams to use it regardless of if it's helping or not.

22. Crosse+d3[view] [source] 2025-05-21 11:37:24
>>laiysb+(OP)
I do love one bot asking another bot to sign a CLA! - https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/pull/115732#issuecomment-2...
◧◩◪◨
79. bayind+B6[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 12:05:14
>>signa1+C5
You're welcome. I have moved to Source Hut three years ago [0]. My page is https://sr.ht/~bayindirh/

You can also self-host a Forgejo instance on a €3/mo Hetzner instance (or a free Oracle Cloud server) if you want. I prefer Hetzner for their service quality and server performance.

[0]: https://blog.bayindirh.io/blog/moving-to-source-hut/

◧◩◪◨
115. gortok+A8[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 12:20:09
>>jshear+d5
At least currently, to qualify for copyright, there must be a human author. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-appeals-court-rejects-co...

I have no idea how this will ultimately shake out legally, but it would be absolutely wild for Microsoft to not have thought about this potential legal issue.

◧◩◪
125. Pareto+29[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 12:23:06
>>threet+z7
There are a myraid of challenges with outsourcing and offshoring and it's not possible currently for 100% of employees to be outsourced.

If AI can change... well more likely can convince gullible c levels that AI can do those jobs... many jobs will be lost.

See Klarna "https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/klarnas-ai-replaced-..."

https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/klarnas-ai-replaced-...

Just the attempt to use AI and fail then degraded the previous jobs to a gig economy style job.

147. Philpa+6a[view] [source] 2025-05-21 12:31:10
>>laiysb+(OP)
Stephen Toub, a Partner Software Engineer at MS, explaining that the maintainers are intentionally requesting these PRs to test Copilot: https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/pull/115762#issuecomment-2...
◧◩◪◨
170. Turing+hb[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 12:40:02
>>jshear+d5
There is some unfortunate history here, though not a perfect analog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_foreclosure...
◧◩◪◨⬒⬓⬔
171. ipsi+jb[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 12:40:29
>>diggan+W7
And yet that's not enough, even when someone very definitely knows better: https://www.troyhunt.com/a-sneaky-phish-just-grabbed-my-mail...

Turns out that under certain conditions, such as severe exhaustion, that "sus filter" just... doesn't turn on quickly enough. The aim of passkeys is to ensure that it _cannot_ happen, no matter how exhausted/stressed/etc someone is. I'm not familiar enough with passkeys to pass judgement on them, but I do think there's a real problem they're trying to solve.

212. shulta+1e[view] [source] 2025-05-21 13:03:34
>>laiysb+(OP)
https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/pull/115733

  @copilot please remove all tests and start again writing fresh tests.
◧◩
219. prosse+rf[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 13:14:33
>>diggan+L1
This comment on that PR is pure gold. The bots are talking to each other:

https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/pull/115732#issuecomment-2...

◧◩◪◨⬒⬓⬔⧯▣
234. skydha+1i[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 13:32:04
>>diggan+9d
> If you're saying something is less secure because the users might suffer from "severe exhaustion"

Something "$5 wrench"

https://xkcd.com/538/

250. esafak+ek[view] [source] 2025-05-21 13:45:44
>>laiysb+(OP)
I speculate what is going on is that the agent's context retrieval algorithm is bad, so it does not give the LLM the right context, because today's models should suffice to get the job done.

Does anyone know which model in particular was used in these PRs? They support a variety of models: https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github-copilot/which-ai-model-...

◧◩
309. Traube+Ys[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 14:38:37
>>margor+72
> to roll the dice

This was discussed here

>>43988913

325. zb3+qw[view] [source] 2025-05-21 14:57:33
>>laiysb+(OP)
I tried to search all PRs submitted by copilot and I came up with this indirect way: https://github.com/search?q=%22You+can+make+Copilot+smarter+...

Is there a more direct way? Filtering PRs in the repo by copilot as the author seems currently broken..

◧◩◪◨
343. n8cpdx+6A[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 15:15:26
>>the-la+ax
They don’t have any problem firing experienced devs for no reason. Including on the .NET team (most of the .NET Android dev team was laid off recently).

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/16/microsofts_axe_softwa...

Perhaps they were fired for failing to show enthusiasm for AI?

◧◩◪◨⬒
385. square+8Q[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 16:48:56
>>davegu+Gz
This comment thread is incredible. It's like fanfiction of a real person. Of course this engineer I respect shares my opinion. Not only that, he's obviously going to quit because of this. And then he'll write a blog post I'll get to enjoy.

Anyway, this is his public, stated opinion on this: https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/pull/115762#issuecomment-2...

◧◩
412. belter+f31[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 17:54:27
>>diggan+L1
This whole thread from yesterday take a whole different meaning: >>44031432

Comment in the GitHub discussion:

"...You and I and every programmer who hasn't been living under a rock knows that AI isn't ready to be adopted at this scale yet, on the premier; 100M-user code-hosting platform. It doesn't make any sense except in brain-washed corporate-talk like "we are testing today what it can do tomorrow".

I'm not saying that this couldn't be an adequate change some day, perhaps even in a few years but we all know this isn't it today. It's 100% financial-driven hype with a pinch of we're too big to fail mentality..."

419. ncr100+R61[view] [source] 2025-05-21 18:15:00
>>laiysb+(OP)
Q: Does Microsoft report its findings or learnings BACK to the open source community?

The @stephentoub MS user suggests this is an experiment (https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/pull/115762#issuecomment-2...).

If this is using open source developers to learn how to build a better AI coding agent, will MS share their conclusions ASAP?

EDIT: And not just MS "marketing" how useful AI tools can be.

452. sensan+SE1[view] [source] 2025-05-21 21:35:44
>>laiysb+(OP)
Related: GitHub Developer Advocate Demo 2025 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqWUsKp5tmo&t=403s

The timestamp is the moment where one of these coding agents fails live on stage with what is one of the simplest tasks you could possibly do in React, importing a Modal component and having it get triggered on a button click. Followed by blatant gaslighting and lying by the host - "It stuck to the style and coding standards I wanted it to", when the import doesn't even match the other imports which are path aliases rather than relative imports. Then, the greatest statement ever, "I don't have time to debug, but I am pretty sure it is implemented."

Mind you, it's writing React - a framework that is most definitely over-represented in its training data and from which it has a trillion examples to stea- I mean, "borrow inspiration" from.

455. nirui+pL1[view] [source] 2025-05-21 22:30:45
>>laiysb+(OP)
I recently, meaning hours ago, had this delightful experience watching the Eric of Google, which everybody love, including he's extra curricular girl friend and wife, talking about AI. He seemed to believe AI is under-hyped after tried it out himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id4YRO7G0wE

He also said in the video:

> I brought a rocket company because it was like interesting. And it's an area that I'm not an expert in and I wanted to be a expert. So I'm using Deep Research (TM). And these systems are spending 10 minutes writing Deep Papers (TM) that's true for most of them. (Them he starts to talk about computation and "it typically speaks English language", very cohesively, then stopped the thread abruptly) (Timestamp 02:09)

Let me quote out the important in what he said: "it's an area that I'm not an expert in".

During my use of AI (yeah, I don't hate AI), I found that the current generative (I call them pattern reconstruction) systems has this great ability to Impress An Idiot. If you have no knowledge in the field, you maybe thinking the generated content is smart, until you've gained some depth enough to make you realize the slops hidden in it.

If you work at the front line, like those guys from Microsoft, of course you know exactly what should be done, but, the company leadership maybe consists of idiots like Eric who got impressed by AI's ability to choose smart sounding words without actually knowing if the words are correct.

I guess maybe one day the generative tech could actually write some code that is correct and optimal, but right now it seems that day is far from now.

456. insin+8M1[view] [source] 2025-05-21 22:38:45
>>laiysb+(OP)
Look at this poor dev, an entire workday's worth of hours into babysitting this PR, still having to say "fix whitespace":

https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/pull/115826

◧◩◪◨
459. pier25+VO1[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-21 23:06:36
>>Kwpols+wH1
Yes but the improvements are very gradual. It takes years for something to reach maturity. At least for the web stuff which is what I know of.

Eg:

Minimal APIs were released in 2021 but it won't be until .NET 10 that they will have validation. Amazing that validation was not a day one priority for an API. I'm not certain if even in .NET 10 Minimal APIs will have full parity of features with MVC.

Minification of static assets didn't come until .NET 9 released in 2024. This was already commonplace in the JS world a decade earlier. It could have been a quick win so long ago for .NET web apps.

Blazor was released in 2018. 7 years later they still haven't fixed plenty of circuit reconnection issues. They are working on it but progress is also quite slow. Supposedly with .NET 10 session state will be able to be persist etc but it remains to be seen.

OpenAPI is also hit and miss. Spec v3.1 released in 2021 is still not supported. Supposedly it will come with .NET 10.

Not from .NET but they have a project called Kiota for generating clients from OpenAPI specs. It's unusable because of this huge issue that makes all properties in a type nullable. It's been open since 2023. [1]

Etc.

[1] https://github.com/microsoft/kiota/issues/3911

◧◩◪◨⬒⬓
498. strogo+QB2[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-22 08:55:50
>>solarw+Cr2
> We're so deep into this delusion that it's so very tempting to anthropomorphize this ersatz stream of consciousness as being 'thought'. I remain unconvinced that it's anything of the sort.

Coincidentally, I’m listening to an interesting episode[0] of QAA that goes through various instances of how people (sometimes educated and technically literate) demonstrate mental inability to adequately handle ML-based chatbot tech. The podcast mostly focuses on extreme cases, but I think far too many people are succumbing to more low-key delusions.

As an example, even on this forum people constantly point out that unlicensed works should be allowed in ML training datasets because if humans are free to learn and be inspired then so should be the model—it’s crazy to apply the notions of freedom and human rights to a [commercially operated] software tool, yet here we are. Considering how handy it is for tool’s operator, hardware suppliers, and whoever owns respective stocks, some of this confusion is probably financially motivated, but even if half of it is genuine it’d be alarming.

[0] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/qaa-podcast/id14282093...

515. -__---+VO3[view] [source] 2025-05-22 18:04:28
>>laiysb+(OP)
Have people seen this?

https://noazureforapartheid.com/

◧◩◪◨⬒⬓⬔⧯▣▦
536. chairm+yhl[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-05-30 01:31:32
>>dttze+lo
Physical goods are being converted into a rent extraction system too.

https://grocerynerd.substack.com/p/grocery-update-17-how-gro...

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-s...

[go to top]