StackOverflow is fighting back! OverflowAI is going to change game?
Here is everything you need to know about the release of OverflowAI, their new generative AI initiative.
StackOverflow traffic has been declining for several years, but after the release of ChatGPT, things took a turn for the worse:
Posting activity on the site fell the equivalent of five years in just six months! People stopped visiting the site and asking questions. Many thought this was a slow and painful death, and there was no coming back.
Today, their CEO announced OverflowAI.
If you can’t beat them, join them, right?
But what’s OverflowAI, and is this enough for StackOverflow to become relevant again?
Here is StackOverflow’s statement from seven months ago:
“All use of generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT and other LLMs) is banned when posting content on Stack Overflow. This includes asking the question to an AI generator then copy-pasting its output as well as using an AI generator to reword your answers.”
OverflowAI is not a tool but a group of different generative-AI initiatives. StackOverflow went from banning AI to embracing it in over six months.
Some of the features they announced will be open to everyone:
First, they will replace their search functionality with one powered by generative AI. You can ask a question, and the site will search and summarize existing answers for you.
To power this feature, they use a vector database and embeddings of their 58 million questions and answers. It’s a smart move, and it should improve the quality of the solutions we get.
Answers will cite sources, so authors get the credit, and users can always trace back the results.
Second, the assistant will help you ask a question if you don’t find an answer. This should help people keep a consistent format and include as much relevant information as necessary.
The third interesting feature is a Visual Studio plugin to ask questions from your IDE. You can select a snippet of code, fire the plugin, ask a question, and get an answer without opening a browser.
I’m having difficulty seeing how a plugin that answers questions will fit next to Copilot. Will they complement each other?
I’m glad StackOverflow is fighting back. They promised the new search functionality by August.
But is this enough to keep them alive?
Do you think they have a fighting chance against ChatGPT and Copilot?
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