Copilot Lag is a state in which developers feel powerless to proceed with their project because they need an LLM to tell them what to do next. Copilot Lag is one way in which AI is Causing Chaos.
James Elicx describes this concept in a recent blog post about how overreliance on Copilot systems makes developers dumber:
There is a concept called “Copilot Lag”. It refers to a state where after each action, an engineer pauses, waiting for something to prompt them what to do next. There is no self-sufficiency, just the act of waiting for an AI to tell them what should come next. It’s akin to where a junior in the field might start - relying on their more senior colleagues to guide them and understand how to proceed.
…
It was actually a video by ThePrimeagen that made me realise this and confront reality. He had a clip from one of his streams where he was talking about Copilot lag. What a wake up call that was!