Beyond the Pull Request: What ChatGPT Teaches Us About Productivity
Beyond the Pull Request: What ChatGPT Teaches Us About Productivity In April 2023, Italy temporarily banned ChatGPT. To most, it was a regulatory hiccup. But to 88,000 open-source developers on GitHub, it became a natural experiment in how large language models (LLMs) alter not just code—but collaboration, learning, and even the pace of onboarding. A new study by researchers from UC Irvine and Chapman University used this four-week ban to investigate what happens when developers suddenly lose access to LLMs. The findings are clear: ChatGPT’s influence goes far beyond code completion. It subtly rewires how developers learn, collaborate, and grow. ...