Post #4253827

2026-07-30 15:50 UTC

Ok... so a couple of things I've learned from people's responses: These aren't formal code review requests. People are just asking me to look at a thing they made with AI-generated code and tell them if it seems scientifically accurate (which... I don't think is possible for me to do). Also... you can get paid for code review?? There is no money being offered here... this is all volunteer requests.

Replies (5)

@alienghic@timeloop.cafe 2026-07-30 15:57

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social Demand money. There are consulting firms already providing "cleaning up your companies failed AI code" services. There's also a long history of science dumping crap low reward jobs on women. And I feel like reviewing and fixing AI generated code is a crap low reward job.

Open ##4312545
@MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social 2026-07-30 15:58

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social Who is doing the request and what is the code for? In principle, you can get paid for anything someone is willing to pay for, hence, the cottage industry in scientific writing editors, illustrators... However, in the US, it can be tricky for academics do paid work for someone else's projects. If the requestor is another academic, (and you want to do it) I'd suggest a collaboration with a paid sub-contract and plan for authorship.

Open ##4312546
@mdhughes@appdot.net 2026-07-30 16:11

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social Yes. I do almost a Harlan Ellison "cross my palm with silver" routine when people want free consulting out of me. Take whatever hourly rate you think is sane, increase for being annoying (I used to say double, now I'd say 5x). Either they pay for it, or they go away.

Open ##4312547
@the_wub@mastodon.social 2026-07-30 16:13

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social So... You are a Professor involved in (among other things) important work regarding satellites in near Earth orbits. You are in demand for giving interviews, lectures and written information for the media. You have a farm. Your farm is full of goats and other wonderful creatures. And vegetables. All of which needs to be tended. Someone puts together something using AI which saves them lots of time and energy learning stuff and then they want you to review it? For free? 🤔

Open ##4312548
@ShadSterling@mastodon.social 2026-07-30 18:16

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social I wonder if there are existing tools that could help the well-meaning among those people. Like something where you can schedule an occasional public code-review hour, and people can request a review of their code, but also vote for which other requests should go first (as well as collaborate and such, maybe tied to codeberg). Or if there are many similar requests, a set of standard tests for those topics that can check whether submitted code handles reference scenarios correctly

Open ##4312549