The Dark Side of Artificial Intelligence in Software Development Artificial intelligence is helping make software development easier and quicker but there are also hidden dangers to software development that many developers are starting to see.

Abstract

The industry is experiencing an unprecedented transformation in the production and maintenance of code with the continued widespread adoption of artificial intelligence tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT into the software development lifecycle. This paper will discuss the dual aspect of AI in software engineering, the opportunities presented by these technologies in accelerating productivity and relieving repetitive workspace tasks, including generation of UI components and connection to databases. The paper however points out the dark side to this fast adoption, especially among students and junior developers in developing tech centers such as Pakistan. The results indicate that excessively high use of AI-generated code can cause an objectively decreased level of basic problem-solving competencies and logical thinking. In addition, the report is tackling key security threats related to the implementation of unchecked, AI generated snippets that can be having hidden vulnerabilities. The article concludes by restating that, although AI can be considered a natural next step in the field, a moderate position turns out to be the most adequate solution with regard to the quality of software in the long-term. It notes that the next generation of successful engineers, will be forced to consider AI as a supportive tool to the main programming logic and the manual code inspection process.