Opinion: StackOverflow must not lose the battle against AI
StackOverflow, the Q&A site for developers, has announced a rebranding in order to survive in an AI world. Ultimately, this also benefits AI.
(Image: Stock-Asso/ Shutterstock.com)
Hardly any developer will not have turned to StackOverflow for help at some point in the past 16 years – Hardly any question has remained unanswered on the Q&A page. It has recently become easier: the co-pilot lurks on the right-hand side of VS Code, answers all questions and integrates the results directly into the code – Sometimes a small correction is needed, but most of the time it fits. As a result, the access figures for StackOverflow drop dramatically (see figure).
After initial, unsuccessful attempts to defend itself, StackExchange, the company behind StackOverflow, now seems to be pulling the ripcord, accepting its fate and repositioning its brands for the future in the age of AI. The damage to the community would be great if the company does not succeed in this turnaround.
The future in an AI world
CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar announced the rebranding on the company's blog: It "is not just a new, colorful dress. It's a realignment with the aim of supporting the designers of the future in an AI world." He also gives a clear reason: "Artificial intelligence is reshaping the way we design, learn and solve problems. Software development looks completely different than it did a few years ago – and the pace of change is accelerating."
StackOverflow users are to be actively involved in the rebranding, but there is also talk of an external consultant in another blog post. The blogs do not provide any more details about where the journey is headed.
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Changing defensive battles
The company quickly realized that AI was becoming a problem for StackOverflow and took various measures to counteract this: In December 2022, it locked out ChatGPT, because it was also obvious that no coding assistant could be trained without data from sites like StackOverflow. The U-turn followed in July 2024: The Q&A page itself provides visitors with answers generated by an AI assistant. None of this has helped, with usage figures falling dramatically, as a query of the in-house data platform shows.
(Image:Â Screenshot StackOverflow)
StackExchange not only lives from StackOverflow, but also from SaaS services, advertising and other cloud offerings. A financial report by parent company Prosus even shows growth and a significant reduction in losses for StackExchange in the second half of 2024.
The desire for the company to succeed in its transformation into the future is not only for nostalgic reasons, but also because the coding wizards need StackOverflow. Because without problem-solving strategies in human language, an AI cannot explain code to us or clearly explain where the worm is.
Programming languages and application requirements are evolving and if AI only ever reproduces itself, sooner or later it will fall short of these requirements. It needs human dialog in order to remain in dialog with us.
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