OpenAI is collaborating with Stack Overflow, the Q&A forum for software developers, to improve the performance of its generative AI models on programming-related tasks.
Through the partnership announced Monday, OpenAI’s models, including models served through its ChatGPT chatbot platform, are expected to improve over time to answer programming-related questions, both companies say. At the same time, Stack Overflow will benefit from OpenAI’s expertise in developing new generative AI integrations on the Stack Overflow platform.
The first round of features will go live by the end of June.
The tie-up with OpenAI represents a remarkable turnaround for Stack Overflow, which initially banned ChatGPT responses on its platform for fear of spammy responses.
Stack Overflow began experimenting with generative AI features last April, promising to create models that will “reward” developers who contribute their knowledge to the platform. In July, the company launched a conversational search tool that allows users to ask questions and receive answers based on the Stack Overflow database of more than 58 million questions and answers, as well as tools that enable businesses to refine research on their own documentation and knowledge bases.
Some members of Stack Overflow’s developer community have rebelled against the changes, highlighting concerns related to the validity of AI-generated information, information overload, and the data privacy of individual contributors on the platform .
There was at least some basis for these concerns. An analysis of more than 150 million lines of code committed to project repositories over the past few years by GitClear found that generative AI development tools are causing more bad code to be pushed to the databases of code. Elsewhere, security researchers have warned that such tools can amplify existing bugs and security issues in software projects.
But despite the apparent flaws, developers are adopting generative AI tools for at least some coding tasks. In a June 2023 Stack Overflow survey, 44% of developers said they now use AI tools in their development process, while 26% plan to do so soon.
This precipitated something of an existential crisis for Stack Overflow. Traffic to the platform has reportedly declined significantly since the release last year of powerful new generative AI models – models that, in many cases, were trained on Stack Overflow data.
So now, while cutting costs, Stack Overflow enters into licensing agreements with AI providers.
The company’s deal with OpenAI – financial terms of which were not disclosed – comes after Stack Overflow partnered with Google to enrich Google’s Gemini models with Stack Overflow data and worked with Google to bring more AI-based features to its platform. Stack Overflow pointed out at the time that the deal was not exclusive – and that indeed turned out to be the case.
Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO of Stack Overflow, previously said that 10% of the platform’s nearly 600 employees were focused on its AI strategy, and described the potential additional revenue from the strategy as key to ensuring that Stack Overflow can continue to attract users and maintain high quality. information.
“Stack Overflow is the world’s largest developer community,” Chandrasekar said in a press release this morning. “Through (our) industry-leading partnership with OpenAI, we strive to redefine the developer experience, driving efficiency and collaboration through the power of community, best-in-class data, and user experiences. AI. Our goal with OverflowAPI, and our work to advance the era of socially responsible AI, is to set new standards with verified, trusted and accurate data that will form the foundation on which technology solutions are built and delivered to our users.
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