I'm a beginner developer, and my small projects often end up without comments or a README because I procrastinate writing detailed documentation. Would it be considered a problem or make the project seem low-effort if I use AI to draft the comments and README?
3 Answers
Be careful with comments in particular. Comments should explain intent or a non-obvious decision, not simply restate what the code does. Automatically adding comments above every function can make a project harder to read. Write the important explanations yourself, then use AI to help polish them if needed.
There is no need to avoid AI just to prove a point, especially for personal projects. It can also help with changelogs, release notes, and documenting conventions. Just do not treat its output as automatically correct, and make sure you understand and can stand behind the final documentation.
Using AI is fine as long as you review and edit everything it produces. A README should quickly explain why the project exists, how to install or run it, and what users can do with it. AI often makes documentation overly long or generic, so make sure the final version actually reflects your project.
That applies to READMEs too: give the AI the project details and your preferred style instead of asking for a generic document. Otherwise it tends to produce a long overview that says very little.