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Tell HN: VS Code v1.117.0 automatically adds GitHub Copilot as your co author

111 points by adithyassekhar ↗ HN
I don’t even use copilot. Yet, if you are like me and sometimes use the Source Control tab to stage files or manually write commit messages, it automatically appends Copilot as the co author for that commit.

How does anyone at Microsoft/Github thinks this is ok? I don’t even use your AI, this is code I have written myself. This just looks desperate.

28 comments

[ 6.5 ms ] story [ 279 ms ] thread
mizhibuilder
The problem isn’t “AI in the workflow.” It’s AI claiming authorship by default.

If I didn’t explicitly use Copilot for that commit, adding it as co-author is not assistance, it’s misattribution.

jb_briant
I have a rule for Claude to stop watermarking the commits. I feel exposed when it's doing it and I rewrote the entire Claude assisted commit history after switching from Copilot to Claude.
asxndu
Just switch to VSCodium
bcye
This only happens on commits where autocomplete (via Copilot) was used, which I think is on by default.

Still that doesn't seem very reasonable, LLM autocomplete seems like a basic editor feature nowadays.

adithyassekhar
UPDATE: It was the inline suggestions. If you use it to fill at least a character or word it will decide that it owns your code now.

I accepted a typo fix in a changelog while correcting it. Appears as tab to autocomplete for those unaware. Still seems like a reach.

classified
In for a penny, in for an arm and a leg. You can't use Microslop, Microslop uses you. That's the order of things.
altbdoor
Friendly reminder that all (I sure hope it does all...) the Copilot kerfuffle can be disabled in `chat.disableAIFeatures` flag in the settings.
crazybonkersai
PSA: You can disable it in the settings with the Git: add ai to Co author option
ferguess_k
It has some value when you want to do sketchy things -- oh my AI ate my commit. /s

BTW I'm glad MSFT is aggressively pushing AI into VSCode. Maybe they will destroy VSCode in the process, just like Windows -- or at least give other smaller guys some breathing spaces.

Please do, MSFT.

classified
As you can see with GitHub and Windows, lots of people are still using destroyed products that hardly have any competition.
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TurboTimon
What a stupid annoying default setting! Here is how to turn it of in v1.117

```json // .vscode/settings.json { "git.addAICoAuthor": "off" } ```

Leonard_of_Q
Here's a more general command to turn off this and future annoyances. Works in Debian and other apt-based distributions.

   sudo apt autoremove --purge code
It does have some side effects [1] but those are not as hard to deal with as whatever MS has done and will continue doing to your workflow.

[1] disclaimer for those used to copy-pasting anything they find on the internet: sudo apt autoremove --purge <package> [<package> ...] removes software packages and their configuration files. Only use this if you know what you're doing.

dickeeT
it's annoying, but i think most people wouldn't care about this, and microsoft will think this is a good idea because majority of user will not turning it off
dgellow
Thanks for sharing. Time to go back to my emacs config from late 2010s…
sergeivaskov
If Copilot insists on being a co-author for suggesting a comma, I expect it to also take co-responsibility for the bugs it introduces and page itself when the production goes down at 2 AM.
legacynl
Maybe this is some form of 'growth hacking'? I.e. they will use the increase in commits cowritten by Copilot as 'proof' that the AI hype is still alive?
dhimmel
This is crazy, autocomplete changed one variable name for me and now I see:

`Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>`

That is not coauthorship. And if it were, every pre-commit tool that automatically reformats or fixes code should also append themselves as coauthors!

abswest
I think its already off in 1.118.0 by default.
hackermanai
> How does anyone at Microsoft/Github thinks this is ok?

Their whole marketing department probably.

IVski
This is opt-out dark pattern territory. Git commits are a permanent record of authorship silently injecting a co-author trailer without explicit consent is a trust violation, regardless of intent.