I'm a beginner developer, and many of my small projects are missing comments and a README because I tend to put off writing documentation. I'm considering using an AI tool to help create both. Would that make the project feel AI-made or reflect badly on me?
3 Answers
Using AI for documentation doesn’t automatically make the whole project AI-made. What matters is whether you understand and take responsibility for the code and the final documentation. Just review everything carefully, since AI-generated READMEs can be inaccurate, overly long, or focused on technical details instead of explaining why someone would use the project and how to get started.
Some people will judge documentation that feels generic or careless, regardless of whether AI wrote it. A short, accurate README that explains the purpose, setup steps, usage, and limitations is much better than a polished but vague one. Writing it yourself can also be useful practice, but using AI as an editor or first draft is not inherently a problem.
AI assistance is fine for a README, changelog, or release notes, especially as a starting point. Give it the project details and examples of the tone you want, then edit the result so it reflects what the project actually does. Don’t blindly accept generated comments—comments should explain decisions or non-obvious behavior, not simply restate what the code already says.
It can also help document project conventions and recurring patterns, but those notes still need to be checked and kept up to date.