Ask HN: Those of you in M&A – is AI generated code a pencils down moment?

[msencenb]

When we first started seeing Github CoPilot/ChatGPT there was a lot of concern from the legal standpoint of IP ownership and copyright issues.

When you are evaluating a company for acquisition, what happens when you learn that the programmers have been using AI-generation? Is it pencils down? Change the valuation? Nothing?

[smoldesu]

I'm not in M&A, but code outsourcing has been extremely common for a while. It probably raises some eyebrows, but I'd bet even the suits know that most software companies don't write everything in-house.

AI may be a different can of worms, and I'd expect them to usher in a copyright lawyer before putting down the pencil. If the product is everything they signed up for though, I don't see why they wouldn't seal the deal. The only exceptions I can imagine are in the defense, aerospace and medical industries.