Code-Washing 

Code-Washing (n.)
/ˈkōdˌwäSHiNG/

The recursive process of submitting AI-generated or AI-altered code back into an AI system to remove hallucinated errors, stabilize logic, or restore functionality — often without fully understanding the changes being made.

First used to describe the phenomenon of using AI to clean up its own flawed code outputs in recursive cycles of copy-paste-debug-refeed.

Usage:

“The script was broken until I code-washed it through GPT like four times.”
“This smells like a code-washed mess — works, but nobody knows why.”
“We need to stop code-washing broken AI output and start understanding our logic.”

Code-Washing by pUrpLmUnk3y July 21, 2025