In a significant collaboration, OpenAI is joining forces with Stack Overflow, the popular Q&A forum for software developers, to improve the performance of its generative AI models on programming-related tasks. The partnership, announced on Monday, aims to leverage Stack Overflow’s vast repository of developer knowledge to further enhance the capabilities of OpenAI’s models, including those powering the ChatGPT chatbot platform.
As a result of this collaboration, OpenAI’s models are expected to become increasingly proficient at answering programming-related questions over time. Simultaneously, Stack Overflow will benefit from OpenAI’s expertise in developing new generative AI integrations on its platform, with the first set of features slated to go live by the end of June.
The tie-up with OpenAI marks a remarkable reversal for Stack Overflow, which initially banned responses from ChatGPT on its platform over concerns about spammy responses. However, Stack Overflow has been actively exploring generative AI features since last April, aiming to craft models that “reward” developers who contribute knowledge to the platform.
In July 2022, the company launched a conversational search tool that allows users to pose queries and receive answers based on Stack Overflow’s database of over 58 million questions and answers, as well as tools for businesses to fine-tune searches on their own documentation and knowledge bases. However, some members of Stack Overflow’s developer community expressed concerns related to the validity of information generated by AI, information overload, and data privacy for individual contributors.
Despite these concerns, developers are increasingly embracing generative AI tools for coding tasks. A Stack Overflow poll from June 2023 revealed that 44% of developers use AI tools in their development process, while 26% plan to do so soon.
This trend has prompted an existential crisis for Stack Overflow, as traffic to the platform has reportedly dipped significantly since the release of capable new generative AI models last year – models that were often trained on data from Stack Overflow itself. As a result, Stack Overflow is now pursuing licensing agreements with AI providers to ensure its long-term viability.
The deal with OpenAI, whose financial terms were not disclosed, follows Stack Overflow’s previous partnership with Google to enrich Google’s Gemini models with Stack Overflow data and bring more AI-powered features to its platform.
Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar has emphasized the importance of the company’s AI strategy, stating that 10% of its nearly 600 staff is focused on this endeavor. He described potential additional revenue from the AI strategy as key to ensuring Stack Overflow can continue attracting users and maintaining high-quality information.
“Stack Overflow is the world’s largest developer community,” Chandrasekar said. “Through [our] industry-leading partnership with OpenAI, we strive to redefine the developer experience, fostering efficiency and collaboration through the power of community, best-in-class data, and AI experiences. Our goal with OverflowAPI, and our work to advance the era of socially responsible AI, is to set new standards with vetted, trusted, and accurate data that will be the foundation on which technology solutions are built and delivered to our user.”
