AI Code Generation Shifts Bottleneck to Review, Data Shows Oversight Declining

Anthropic's Opus 5 promises self-verification during code generation, but developers report the real problem has shifted to reviewing the large volumes of AI-produced code rather than writing it. Industry data underscores the trend: Faros AI analyzed telemetry from 22,000 developers and found median code review time rose 441.5%, while unreviewed pull request merges climbed 31.3%. LinearB's study of 8.1 million pull requests found AI-assisted PRs are 2.6 times larger than hand-written ones and wait more than five times longer before a reviewer picks them up. Developers describe a pattern called 'vibe merging,' where overwhelming code volume leads to cursory diff skims or instinct-based approvals, with one benchmark being a 300-plus-line diff approved in under three minutes. A Stack Overflow 2025 survey reinforces the concern, with 46% of developers distrusting AI output accuracy and 66% citing 'almost right, but not quite' answers as their top frustration — exactly the class of bug most likely to slip through a rushed review.
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