[Submitted on 7 May 2026 (
[v1](https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.06464v1)), last revised 9 May 2026 (this version, v2)]
[View PDF](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.06464)
[HTML (experimental)](https://arxiv.org/html/2605.06464v2)
Abstract:LLM-based autonomous coding agents have reshaped software development. While these agents excel at code generation, open questions persist about the long-term maintainability of AI-generated code. This study empirically investigates the maintenance extent, human involvement, and modification types of AI-generated files versus human-authored code. Using the AIDev dataset of AI-generated pull requests and GitHub, we analyzed over 1,000 files and approximately 3,200 changes from 100 popular repositories. Our findings show that: (i) AI-generated files receive less frequent maintenance than human-authored code, with updates affecting only a small fraction of file size; (ii) the most frequent modifications to AI code are feature extensions, whereas human updates focus on bug fixes, and (iii) human developers perform the large majority of this maintenance.
Submission history #
From: Tatsuya Shirai [
[view email](https://arxiv.org/show-email/b89856e8/2605.06464)]
**Thu, 7 May 2026 15:52:41 UTC (766 KB)**
[\[v1\]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.06464v1)
**[v2]** Sat, 9 May 2026 06:52:52 UTC (766 KB)
Additional Features
References & Citations
...
Bibliographic Explorer
(What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers
(What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps
(What is Litmaps?) scite Smart Citations
(What are Smart Citations?) alphaXiv
(What is alphaXiv?) CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers
(What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub
(What is DagsHub?) Gotit.pub
(What is GotitPub?) Hugging Face
(What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast
(What is ScienceCast?) Influence Flower
(What are Influence Flowers?) CORE Recommender
(What is CORE?) arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.
Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.
Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.