How Italy's Ban on ChatGPT Revealed That Coders Already Rely On ...
On April 1, 2021, the Italian government banned ChatGPT, an AI system that generates human-like text and computer code, citing concerns over privacy breaches of those whose data was used to train the system. This ban inadvertently shed light on how coders have already incorporated the use of ChatGPT into their work, and how their productivity has come to rely on it.
Australian researchers David Kreitmeir and Paul Raschky from Monash University saw an opportunity to investigate the use of ChatGPT by coders by examining their work patterns before and after the ban. They discovered that not only do coders use ChatGPT extensively to develop, write, and correct code, but also that productivity in the coding industry is dependent on it.
The researchers obtained data from GitHub, a widely-used online software repository that manages version control and records the hourly coding output of 8,000 programmers from Italy and two other European countries, before and after the ban. Their results showed that the ban decreased the coding output of Italian programmers by around 50% in the first two business days.
However, the researchers noted that output levels returned to normal soon after, likely due to programmers finding ways to circumvent the ban. It is easy to bypass the ban using a virtual private network or Tor Relay to access ChatGPT in other countries. The researchers observed a surge in Google searches for "virtual private networks" the day after the ban.
The study provides evidence that ChatGPT is being actively used for high-skilled tasks in the economy, contrary to initial beliefs that it was not yet widely used. The fact that ChatGPT was launched only in November 2020 suggests that this is just the beginning of a growing trend in the use of this technology.
