Google has said its database engineers are free to rely heavily on AI-powered coding tools while contributing to open source projects such as PostgreSQL, but has made clear that responsibility for every line of code remains with the human engineer who submits it.
The directive was explained by Sailesh Krishnamurthy, Vice President of Databases at Google Cloud, who stressed that while AI is increasingly central to development work, accountability cannot be delegated to machines.
According to him, the company’s approach is designed to capture productivity gains from artificial intelligence without compromising code quality or oversight.
He noted that the rule is simple: whoever commits the code is fully responsible for it, regardless of whether it was generated, assisted, or partially suggested by AI systems.
“We do encourage folks to use AI heavily,” Krishnamurthy told The Register. “We are seeing huge amounts of productivity improvements internally.”
He added that responsibility does not shift even when AI plays a major role in writing the code.
“Whether you have a piece of code that is completely drafted by AI, or not even part of what you’re pasting into your development environment, the accountability remains on behalf of the person who’s done it,” he said.
Why Google Is Embracing AI In Open Source Work
Krishnamurthy explained that open source projects like PostgreSQL offer a strong environment for AI-assisted development because the codebase is publicly available, making it easier for AI systems to understand structure and patterns.
He also pointed out that proprietary internal code is less predictable for AI tools since it is not exposed to training data, which can reduce the accuracy of suggestions.
According to him, PostgreSQL is particularly well-suited for experimentation because of its extensible architecture and limited risk environment. “The blast radius is small,” he said, referring to the controlled nature of changes in such projects.
Rising AI Use Inside Google
The policy aligns with Google’s broader internal shift toward AI-assisted development. The company has reported that a significant portion of new code is now generated with AI support and later reviewed by engineers.
Krishnamurthy also said his teams are increasingly relying on these tools, though he emphasised that usage remains carefully managed.
The company has previously indicated that AI now contributes to a large share of internal coding output, with productivity improvements also being seen in large-scale software migration projects.
Industry-Wide Shift
Google’s growing involvement in PostgreSQL development includes improvements in areas such as logical replication and sequence handling. Other tech firms are also expanding their work around the database ecosystem, as demand rises for cloud-native solutions and migration away from legacy systems like Oracle, SQL Server, and Db2.
The broader trend suggests that AI-assisted coding is becoming standard practice across the industry, even as companies continue to reinforce strict human accountability for final code submissions.
