Brief, mostly signal
AI coding agents add code well but rarely remove it
An XDA opinion piece says agents bloat codebases and are seldom asked to simplify. It cites no new data.
What the research found
An XDA opinion piece argues AI coding agents excel at adding code but make codebases bloated and rarely are tasked with simplifying or removing code, with no new data or benchmarks cited.
Claims and how well the evidence supports them
- AI coding agents find it easy to measure success when writing new code because there is a clear request and verifiable outcome 96%
- AI agents can turn clean codebases into bloated code with extra files and layers 98%
- Agents rarely are asked to find what could be left untouched or removed 93%
Evidence
- xda-developers.com https://xda-developers.com/ai-coding-agents-are-great-at-writing-code-and-terrible-at-deleting-it
Actionability rated low.