Developer Q&A site Stack Overflow is launching a brand new program today that can give AI firms access to its knowledge base through a brand new API, aptly named OverflowAPI. The launch partner for that is Google, which is able to use Stack Overflow’s data to counterpoint Gemini for Google Cloud and supply validated Stack Overflow answers within the Google Cloud console. Meanwhile, Stack Overflow will work with Google to bring more AI-powered features to its platform, a process it already began last yr with the launch of OverflowAI.
Google and Stack Overflow plan to preview these integrations at Google’s Cloud Next conference in April.
It’s no secret that content-driven services like Stack Overflow (but additionally Reddit, publishing houses etc.) need to be certain that they receives a commission when large language models ingest their data. While Google and Stack Overflow aren’t discussing the financial terms of this partnership, it’s value noting that this shouldn’t be an exclusive partnership.
“The way in which by which we’re enthusiastic about it with Google may be very specific to all the issues that we wish to unravel for users,” Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar told me. “Other firms — it’s been fascinating the variety of inbounds that we received from firms of every kind which can be experimenting with LLM training, with AI products — cloud firms and non-cloud firms which can be seeking to develop into cloud firms — all kinds of folks who try to leverage our data in very, very powerful ways. This program, this OverflowAPI program, is completely available for all partners to work with us on.”
A world where all developers can get their answers from an AI chatbot, though, can be a world where far fewer developers go to the Stack Overflow website to ask and answer questions (and copy-and-paste them into their code). “We would like to be wherever the developer is,” Chandrasekar told me once I asked him about that. And while he acknowledges that he believes the developer workflow will change as a consequence of these AI tools, he still believes that there’s a need for a trustworthy knowledge base of validated answers. The last word vision here, he said, is “for humans and AI to come back together” and be certain that developers can trust the answers from the AI tools because they’re derived from the knowledge base created by subject material experts.
It’s also value noting that this isn’t just about AI. Google will even bring Stack Overflow right into the Google Cloud console and can allow developers to see answers and ask questions right from there.
“You may envision going to the Google Cloud console, typing in a question, and next to the entire Google-specific responses, you will notice Stack Overflow-specific responses,” Gabe Monroy, Google’s VP of developer experience for Google Cloud, explained. “Those two things will begin to merge together from a developer experience perspective. Now, that’s really essential, because what which means is developers get a smooth experience. They don’t should go hunting and clicking around different sites. Every part that they’d want, Stack Overflow questions and answers, in addition to Google Cloud-specific query answers, all in the identical spot.”
He also noted that the Gemini answers will include citations, so developers can check that the outcomes are correct.
On the Stack Overflow side, the concept is to make use of Gemini through Google’s Vertex AI platform. Currently, the team is evaluating what that can seem like, but you’ll be able to imagine AI support within the question-asking and moderation processes, for instance, in addition to in the shape of an assistant that may answer questions on the location.
Stack Overflow derives its value from having this vast user base of expert users and now greater than a decade of questions and answers about virtually any computer science problem (and while Stack Overflow also runs a network of comparable sites about other topics, the main focus at once is on its flagship developer-oriented site). Chandrasekar noted that it’s very essential to be certain that this quality stays high and isn’t diluted by low-quality, AI-derived answers itself. Partially, that’s why Google is integrating the human elements of the Stack Overflow platform.
“We would like to maintain the standard super high. It’s speculated to be the perfect of the perfect when it comes to quality and accuracy,” he said. He argued that the barrier for entry for asking questions goes to be much lower for a lot of developers because they’ll be interacting with Gemini, not an opinionated group of fellow programmers. You’re getting a bit little bit of the perfect of each worlds, which is incredible,” he said.
Google’s Monroy similarly stressed the essential of the human element in all of this. “Because the team at Stack [Overflow] looks to make use of Gemini to roll out latest features, ensuring that it’s not disrupting what is gorgeous and what’s pristine in regards to the way Stack Overflow has served the developer community […] for a few years — that’s sacred.”
In the long term, Monroy said, Google can also use this partnership to reinforce its code completion model, currently dubbed Codey.
