In April, CEO Sundar Pichai (photo) said that AI generates more than 30 percent of Google’s code. Now, the company is releasing guidelines for all its software engineers on how to best apply AI in their work.
This was reported by 9to5Google. According to a source familiar with the situation, Google sent recommendations and best practices on the use of AI to all software developers by email on Monday, June 30.
The comprehensive document was drafted by fellow engineers based on experiences within the company. The aim is for everyone to use AI to become more productive. Google hopes this will lead to faster iteration and more efficient development.
The guidelines cover the use of AI tools in programming, although details are very limited. They do at least explain what the current generation of AI can and cannot do. Google wants engineers across the company to understand how AI-based systems are built. A specific goal is for team leaders and managers to learn how to incorporate AI integration into their teams.
Exploring artificial intelligence more broadly
The figure of 30 percent AI coding, which has risen by more than 5 percent in six months, refers to code generated by AI. Employees check the code. In the new guidelines, Google emphasizes that accuracy in code review, security, and maintenance will be maintained. The company also encourages employees to explore AI more broadly than just for programming.
The 30 percent figure is very close to how much work Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff estimated AI was doing inside his company. At most, this is currently already 50 percent. The question, however, remains exactly what that entails.
Read more here: 30% of Salesforce’s work is done by AI: what does that mean?
With this publication, Google is formally commenting on the use of AI in software development for the first time, although its use has already increased significantly internally. Pichai announced earlier this month that the use of AI led to an estimated 10 percent increase in development speed.
We have known for some time that AI plays an important role in writing code. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated over a year ago that AI is fundamentally changing the way we develop software. He believes that AI, particularly generative AI, will become the new programming language, enabling anyone to create software using natural language prompts instead of traditional coding.