Stack Overflow is Back From the Dead

Photo by Baher Khairy on Unsplash

Stack Overflow, the one-time hub for all things coding might be on the brink of a resurgence in the face of AI. This isn’t the first time the old ways are fighting back but for us coders, it might be one of the most important.

The Death of Stack Overflow

I’m no fan of Stack Overflow, having written an awesome takedown of the cesspit of arrogance. Here it is:

Stack Overflow Destroys Software Developers
But if it wasn’t there you’d have to invent itmedium.com

I’d imagined at this point in 2024 that nobody would be laboriously typing questions into Stack Overflow only to get taken down by an “expert” who misunderstands your question and marks it as a duplicate when they could laboriously type questions into a chatbot to get an incorrect answer.

 But hold your horses — they’re not going down without a fight.

The Comeback

In a twist that smells of desperation mixed with a dash of genius, Stack Overflow is now charging Large Language Model (LLM) developers for access to its repository of coding questions and answers. 

The new Overflow API will not only cost money but will also require all AI models trained on its content to give credit where credit is due. That’s right.

Stack Overflow wants to remind you that the only ones that can profit from your work is Stack Overflow and they’ll pay you in ‘rep’ — nobody else is going to abuse you.

Google has signed up immediately to improve Gemini because (you agree with this) they desperately need to.

The statement (probably written by a chatbot) read:

 “This partnership brings our enterprise AI platform together with the most in-depth and popular developer knowledge platform available today”

Which is fantastic. Isn’t it lovely when we all get along?

Genius or a desperate move?

Stack Overflow has seen the writing on the wall. The new game is in town, and human-generated content is going down so fast that I’m thinking of quitting Medium because the returns are so low (true story).

Yet since AI is regurgitating the human touch it still needs to be trained. So people should be recognized and paid for that work. That would be nice for all of us don’t you think?

Conclusion

In truth, Stack Overflow isn’t going to go anywhere for a good while. People like their work being criticized and downvoted, and if that’s your bag go for it.

As a company monetizing their API and insisting on attribution, they are positioning themselves as an indispensable resource in the AI-driven future. 

That’s not a bad place to be.

Now how do I future-proof The Secret Developer?