Unveiling the Role of ChatGPT in Software Development: Insights from Developer-ChatGPT Interactions on GitHub
Ruiyin Li, Peng Liang, Yifei Wang, Yangxiao Cai, Weisong Sun, Zengyang Li

TL;DR
This study provides an empirical analysis of how developers use ChatGPT in real-world software development, revealing interaction patterns, purposes, and key activities supported by ChatGPT on GitHub.
Contribution
It introduces DevChat, a large dataset of developer-ChatGPT interactions, and maps ChatGPT's practical roles and tasks in software development.
Findings
Interactions are typically short and task-focused
Developers mainly share conversations to delegate tasks and resolve problems
ChatGPT is frequently used for software implementation and maintenance
Abstract
The advent of Large Language Models (LLMs) has introduced a new paradigm in Software Engineering (SE), with generative AI tools like ChatGPT gaining widespread adoption among developers. While ChatGPT's potential has been extensively discussed, empirical evidence about how developers actually use LLMs' assistance in real-world practices remains limited. To bridge this gap, we conducted a large-scale empirical analysis of ChatGPT usage on GitHub, and we presented DevChat, a curated dataset of 2,547 publicly shared ChatGPT conversation links collected from GitHub between May 2023 and June 2024. Through comprehensively analyzing DevChat, we explored the characteristics of developer-ChatGPT interaction patterns and identified five key categories of developers' purposes for sharing developer-ChatGPT conversations during software development. Additionally, we investigated the dominant…
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Taxonomy
TopicsArtificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education · Software Engineering Research · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
