Devin AI - Are Software Engineers finally doomed?

#devinai #aiengineer #cognitionlabs

Cognition labs released some marketing material about it's AI software engineer called Devin.

Devin should be able to do many more software jobs, and people are worried it will take over all our jobs.

Here, I break down the announcement, discuss my thoughts on each talking point and what I think about in the end about the future.

Cognition Labs just unveiled a new AI coding tool called Devin that is designed to automate the job of software engineers. Let's take a first look at Devin and see if it is a truly powerful tool or just artificial intelligence hype.

#ai #programming

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I've been a software engineer since 2008 and with over a decade of experience, the industry is as crazy and as varied as ever.

I continually get asked for career advice and how to navigate writing code for a living and I wanted to share everything I've learned in hopes that I can help someone who is just starting in software engineering, who has been in it for a while and is too afraid to ask, or the seasoned vet to either agree or argue with me.

The intent of this channel is to have multiple series that include the following topics:
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I've done just about everything in software from working for 3 person start ups, 300 person start ups, silicon valley companies, Fortune 500 companies, small teams, big teams, W2 employment and 1099 contracting, full time contracting and moonlight part time work, independent development, launching my own web apps and iphone app.

[ascourter]

Crazy how fast AI is advancing. I didn't think companies will see this as a tool that engineers can use... I think they will view this as a replacement for engineers

[ItWasntAPhase]

2005: “Coal Miners should learn to Code”
2024: “Coders should learn to Mine Coal”

[XJinfy]

I'm about to cry, this is my future bro, I need a software engineering job to be able to live bro.

[drewmckdotcom]

Hooked Devin directly to my team’s JIRA board and now I work 1 hr a week AMA.

[moqeethkhan]

The companies should realise that the entire life cycle of Corporate lies on the shoulders of people buying goods and services. If you snatch the ability to earn then you won't get the money in circulation. The layoffs and cutting down works for now but in the distant future if the people don't get the alternative to earn obviously they can never spend.

[djRichyRichh]

its defintely over. what do you think will be in 5 or 10 years?

[RAVANREBORN]

Companies will adopt this.. because all they need is a copy of their code base in a sandbox environment and let devin run through it. Once uat is done all they need is to ask developers to go through the whole project and review.. after few successful reviews they can put it on a production server.. and the biggest challenge is that it will fix itself exponentially fast

[VeganRashad]

it’s not over guys you have to become project managers who understand the intricacies of programming you’ll be fine.

[pguard]

I want to join to conversation, i was stressed out too with all AI buzz, and was panicking, but started to investigate and wanted to understand how it works.
1. It is based on mathematics probabilities, calculus and etc. so it measures and set probability, hallucinations comes from predictions
2. Based on physics and etc. seems mind blowing but realisation for me about this calmed me down a lot :)
3. SORA blew my mind too, but is based on pixels shadowing (bits) how tree looks like and set a lot probabilities again, so it can generate some images and videos based on that pixel like data.

When i realised I’m not astonished yet by it, it was expected :) and last thing a ton amount of money is put on it to make that buzz :) it can of course benefit for us for sure in many ways like health and etc., but still where is big money big buzz is happening. We live in interesting future for sure! And as SWE we will need to review what code was written, because it is trained on bad data too.

[iammobenal]

Man of course that is the first version... thousands of companies are coming up to make the AISE even better...wait 2 months and see!

[ishaat_plays]

I think we always need to look an eys on news as technology is adapting like crazy fast. It's a concern also as the stability of job is unsure in the hand of AI

[monbeauparfum]

The day we will have an AI able to develop micro saas and small apps that will be a game changer. Will humble developers who are feeling untitled to mess with people’s projects without any integrity and care.

[TheMajesticSeaPancake]

Definitely not there yet, but clearly a full programmer replacement is on the horizon. Senior devs will have jobs for several more years yet, at the very least as the last on staff. I find it really hard to believe that there won't be something equal to the output of a CS degree and 5-ish years experience tool available about a year from now.

[headbleed]

Devin and whatever AI 'software engineer replacement' they come up with is just the latest trend. Sure it will be able to code, even effectively, but it will always be a niche product used by a small number of companies (and even then, for very specific tasks). Think 3D printing, self driving cars etc.

[patrickjane]

I kind of gave up already. Now I'm willing to learn how to deal with hardware, which seems a job more difficult to automate.

Only people that already well stablished in their careers have nothing to worry.... yet.

[mydreams]

People also had concerns with cloud when it started. This will mature fast with time. Also, they have said it will assist software development, no where it claims to replace the software engineer role. However, this will have big impact to the number of people needed in next few years. May be divide by 100

[madmax]

I think AI will be just like a tool for SWE and also if people should not be worry so much since in the future they will need people who can actually build those AI. Just take the AI positive change just like the internet changed our lives

[holderoftheair]

What's the thought process of engineers who build such tools? What's there end game?

[satyakiguha]

So what can I learn actually? Front end, backend, devops everything is going to be done by AI it seems, they told AI engineers will be in demand but now AI can create its own training data and tweak its learning algorithms....not only that AI can write songs, generate videos etc so someone who replaced swe with AI, its just a matter of time before his/her profession/business too is taken over by AI? So where do we find moksha/ solace? We are doomed

[AndrewSchoolsU]

Microservices don’t need to be in their own code repositories, they just need to run in their own space.