I first tried using AI for code after getting laid off from my old job and just before the industry got laid off. I was in an interview for a game programmer role, I had the exact qualifications they were looking for and the programmer interviewed me told me to try it out; it was 2024.
So I signed into github and tried out copilot inside VS Code. I had a framework I was working on in C++ and I asked it what I thought was a simple question:
"My log macro is LOG(x) printf(x); printf("/n"); Instead of printf I would like to use the windows function OutputDebugMessage. Could you help me rewrite it?"
And maybe my prompt isn't great, it has been 2 years after all, but it generated a whole new function called OutputDebugMessage but did not use what I actually wanted which was OutputDebugString. So I looked up what I wanted, and copied the name. And without deleting code it told me I want to use the W version as I am on a widechar system; not what I wanted. So when I asked it to write out how I might use OutputDebugStringW it generated new code; without deleting the old code. This new code still used sprintf, which isn't printf but still part of libc.
the short of it is: I still use printf in my LOG macro and I haven't tried AI for generating code since. (I have used it as a glorified search and it reminded me that arctan exists)