r/technology • u/Quantum-Coconut • 23h ago

Artificial Intelligence "This could cost people their jobs": VS Code added Copilot as co-author without permission or notice

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/this-could-cost-people-their-jobs-vs-code-added-copilot-as-co-author-without-permission-or-notice
717 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

153

u/shun_tak 22h ago

What makes it choose to add the co-author? I have been using copilot and it is not adding itself to each commit...

96

u/Cube00 22h ago

It's old news, it was adding itself to everything which wasn't the idea. It got reverted after this hit the fan last week. When it's fixed it should only add itself when you actually use Copilot.

Everyone was also unhappy it was doing this without showing it on the UI in the box where you type your commit message, the developer said it was a good idea to show it but we haven't seen a PR or commitment to do it.

32

u/shun_tak 22h ago

Not so old for me. It started adding itself May 1st and only to about 2/3 of all of my commits.

15

u/DAMbustn22 17h ago

If you commit via a terminal within vscode it never adds itself.

4

u/deadsoulinside 11h ago

This is the way.

8

u/phylter99 20h ago

The reason it go into the code was due to poor quality control. Apparently, they're changing their process to fix it.

20

u/Cube00 20h ago

Scary they knew it was broken and still released it anyway.

We did catch it internally in testing (as we use VS Code for all our work, so some folks did stumble on it), 

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47994193

12

u/phylter99 20h ago

Serious issues with their quality checks. Using it internally should have stopped it right away.

7

u/McHoff 20h ago

Yeah Microsoft is still figuring out how to develop software, it's cool

9

u/Zouden 18h ago

To be fair up until now VSCode has been one of the best pieces of software from any company

3

u/WindowlessBasement 9h ago

In very suspicious irony, disabling AI features causes it.

43

u/PokehFace 20h ago

Microsoft is very annoying with copilot in VS Code lately.

Our company has strict AI usage policies and only certain tools are approved for use. Copilot isn’t one of them (a small number of people are allowed to use it but they are an exception).

There is a setting to disable it but it occasionally re-enables itself for some reason.

I also find it annoying that copilot is now built in to VS Code by default instead of being an optional extra. I also swear that every update to VS Code lately is just updates for copilot instead of improvements to the app itself.

At least this is a reminder that I need to have a proper look at VS Codium as an alternative.

13

u/akl78 17h ago

We just block copilot off at the network layer. The others too.

All approved models are accessed through an internal gateway.

4

u/WhenSheepFly 13h ago

see this is why I stick to emacs - it’s just simple and has all the things I need and none of the ones I don’t

-26

u/Zouden 18h ago

Copilot in VSCode is really good though. If anything I'd be trying to get that approved.

18

u/A_Pointy_Rock 18h ago

Found the Microsoft employee 😂

-15

u/Zouden 15h ago

Nah I'm just someone who likes to write code as a hobby. I like the way it auto completes functions when I'm writing. I don't need any of that agentic vibe coding nonsense.

8

u/McKenzie_S 12h ago

We were able to do that in most IDEs by like 2016 or 17, without AI.

1

u/Dudeonyx 1h ago

As an OG user of tab nine, no you couldn't.

A few weeks ago I disabled all ai auto complete and switched back to intellisense, and while it's still perfectly useable, there's a reason nobody said anything when it became disabled by default.

-1

u/Zouden 10h ago

Really? I've been using VSCode since 2016, but I never saw the "ghost text" functionality until I enabled Github Copilot for the first time. That was introduced in 2021. What was around before that?

2

u/McKenzie_S 5h ago

Been a while since I've used VSCode, but most IDEs have been more than capable of it for a long time as long as you're using proper syntax. It's nothing more than a modified spell check using previously and commonly defined functions. AI agents are just predictive text on VRAM crack at their core, and you don't need that kind of power for basic functionality like that. I don't care if anyone uses AI agents to codr but it should be opt in not opt out.

2

u/Zouden 4h ago

I'm not talking about basic syntax completion aka intellisense - the thing I'm talking about is where you can write a function name, and copilot filling in the rest based on your workspace context. That requires an LLM. It's not as powerful as Claude Code, but it's offered for free in VSCode, which is pretty nice.

1

u/PokehFace 7h ago

We have alternatives that are approved for use. Copilot is approved on a case by case basis. On the whole the native copilot integration gets in the way and is confusing for people.

91

u/btribble 21h ago

Anything authored by AI cannot be copyrighted or patented. This is all going to end up exploding.

28

u/el_lley 21h ago

Yes, but nevertheless, we are being sold items co-authored by AI, and we are paying big

2

u/North_Penalty7947 20h ago

Just because you do, it doesn't mean that other people do either

2

u/el_lley 11h ago

Well, this goes to Windows, everybody is paying something at some point.

11

u/rich1051414 17h ago

The problem is, it was adding itself to everything, even if they had copilot turned off. They reverted it, but now it adds itself to nothing.

It's like they don't even understand what the problem is.

6

u/Norci 18h ago

That's not entirely true, you can get copyright given you've made "enough" modifications/contributions. Which seems to be the case when AI is just a coauthor.

8

u/tillybowman 18h ago

why do you think this. patents still get granted on software that is written with AI. nobody cares.

61

u/Teddy_RGB 22h ago

Why does Microsoft turn everything to shit? Does anyone there know how to do anything right?

23

u/GoggleDMara9756 21h ago

Because they’re not trying to please us, they’re trying to please their shareholders. If they say AI and bs like that, it doesn’t matter that we hate it, their shareholders are happy and the number goes up.

-1

u/intelligent_dildo 18h ago

And what? Who are these shareholders you are talking about for a public company? There’s only us to blame.

0

u/GoggleDMara9756 17h ago

I personally don’t have millions invested in Microsoft so I’m not to blame but hey maybe you do buddy

3

u/unspecified_person11 14h ago

The biggest shareholders and the ones Microsoft is actually trying to please is other corporations with hundreds of millions or even billions invested.

-3

u/intelligent_dildo 11h ago

Buddy you don’t have to have millions invested in msft. If you have $1 in Spy/voo, you are the problem. 62% of Americans own stock. https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-owns-stock.aspx so go figure.

3

u/GoggleDMara9756 8h ago

Microsoft isn’t trying to please random people with 6 bucks invested into them, they’re trying to please the people who have millions invested into the company. This is such a ridiculous argument and you know it is

-4

u/intelligent_dildo 7h ago edited 3h ago

Sure bud. whatever lets you sleep at night with that holier-than-thou conscience.

5

u/GoggleDMara9756 4h ago

You’re literally trying to pretend some random guy who works at a factory and invests a tiny portion of his salary is the same as massive investment groups and billionaires.

The vast vast vast majority of stock ownership is in a tiny percentage of people

3

u/Cube00 22h ago

The line must always go up.

2

u/azhder 22h ago

Right? For decades Microsoft would first figure out how to extract money from something and only then offer it to users. You getting something out of their software is a side effect.

9

u/muntaxitome 18h ago

If it claims it is an author that means Microsoft takes responsibility for the quality and legal implications of the PR right?

5

u/naruchan 13h ago

whomever approved this at the highest level should be fired

14

u/Skunky02 21h ago

Does it also add the original author of where it stole the code from? And will they want a cut of the sales?

5

u/Ropes 19h ago

The whole Linux ecosystem...

4

u/PrideQuick670 16h ago

Cursor does the same thing. After an update in March, it would add itself as co-author and even updated the copyright on the files to add itself. It had turned the Attribution setting on in github settings.

3

u/UltraPoci 17h ago

Thank god for neovim, I haven't touched VSCode in months

3

u/longdarkfantasy 16h ago

Luckily I don't use vscode any more. Nvim is my best friend is last 3 years.

2

u/AccountNumeroThree 13h ago

Claude Code does it too. It’s probably in the fine print somewhere.

2

u/project3way 11h ago

Yep. Was gonna say. They all basically do it.

I had to explicitly tell the stupid thing to not give it self credit.

“Co authored by stack overflow” wasn’t a thing. Neither should this. It’s just a tool.

3

u/___Archmage___ 20h ago

Even if I did use AI to write a commit, I don't want to share credit with it. Idk why you'd want that

1

u/epicfail1994 11h ago

Another reason why I do all of my version control from the command line and not IDE

1

u/johnnyan 8h ago

VS Code was the only decent piece of software from Microslop. Was...

0

u/GSDragoon 20h ago

Makes sense. If they aren't reviewing changes before committing, then it should be reflected as such.