Ask HN: Why can't AI fix all open source issues on GitHub?

9 points by coldtrait 2 weeks ago | 11 comments
  • malfist 2 weeks ago
    Same reason why that one manager who's always telling people how awesome AI coding is and how fast and effortless it makes development, isn't opening any pull requests.

    AI isn't what it's hyped to be

    • viraptor 2 weeks ago
      Before you even get to abilities:

      1. Not every issue is fixable

      2. Not every issue is something the project wants to change

      3. Not every issue is well enough defined to be sure when it's fixed

      4. Not every issue can be fixed without access to the reporter's complete environment

      Then you need to actually pay for the work...

      • rsynnott 1 week ago
        Because, well, have you _seen_ its attempts to do that? LLMs just are not very good at programming. Really. There's a lot of hype, and billions being spent in marketing to make you believe that they are, but when it comes right down to it they are not good.
        • achempion 1 week ago
          There are some ongoing experiments regarding this, this is one of them: https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/pull/115762
          • throwaway7679 2 weeks ago
            To get AI to fix a specific issue, simply have a human fix it first.

            If that doesn't sound very useful, well...

            • blueflow 2 weeks ago
              Why can't you?

              ( "I, Robot" reference)

              • NetRunnerSu 2 weeks ago
                Because freedom is a function of wallet balance —— who paying the bills? Project founder, or Github?

                https://dmf-archive.github.io/

                • mikewarot 2 weeks ago
                  Not every issue should be fixed. It's well known that users don't actually know what they really want.

                  Think of AI as a Genie, and consider how well granting 3 wishes works out in most stories.

                  • 2 weeks ago
                    • owebmaster 1 week ago
                      It can if we let it - but it will create the same amount of bugs or more.
                      • incomingpain 2 weeks ago
                        if github copilot were to crunch every issue and offer a patch, that's a ton of gpus and a ton of electricity to do it.

                        But i expect they offer it on ># stars repos at first to manage.

                        • _wire_ 1 week ago
                          Why can't AI deal with all these questions and issues on HN?!

                          It doesn't even need to directly address any of it, just lump the dupes other, bin the paywall references...

                          --Wait, why am I even making a list? The AI can do it!