“We knew this was coming, just not this soon!”
Someone just created a Cognitive Artificial Intelligence Machine that is capable of mimicking a real-life software Engineer, and the world is rightly going crazy!
Is it perfect? No. Is it going to be? No, but definitely better than average humans.
Now, the software engineers who I have talked to had a hard time coping up with their eventual fate. I mean, we marketers had the same jolt may be two years ago and all the graphic designers and UI/UX people felt the same just last year. Most video editors are contemplating their existence after SORA but software engineers, they are just too stubborn to admit that their golden child will eventually be better than them (although, I also feel like they secretly enjoy the world drifting in to AI madness).
Let’s start with the basics:
What does Devin AI do at the moment?
In their website, Cogintion Labs– the company responsible for Devin AI says theirs is the ‘World’s first fully autonomous AI software engineer’. Word out in Reddit is that it is another gimmick, a simple CRUD apps with ample third party API integrations- which is what most AI platforms are at the moment.
But really, what is it?
Without going in to the details, here is what Devin can do at the moment:
- It can go through a website or blog, understand software engineering problems or queries mentioned in it and create accurate models to solve them
- You can build and develop multiple versions of an app or website from scratch
- Devin can find and even fix bugs in code! (Good luck to all of you making money out of those bug bounty programs)
- It can contribute to production repositories, train other AIs and can even fix and upgrade itself.
Definitely not a gimmick then! I will go as far out to say the DEVOPS teams should proactively make decisions to incorporates AI in to their software development in the next 1-2 years. It could be a make or break moment for a lot of the smaller companies, especially if you can promise clients a drastically reduced development time.
Are there any competitors for Devin AI?
There are maybe 1 or 2, and a few more are in development. I have heard about a similar model called Devika but will wait for its features to blast my news feed every hour before making a comment. As the idea gains traction, you will now see a lot more entrepreneurs and even tech-giant jump on to the bandwagon.
Biggies like Alphabet and Microsoft probably already has a ready-built model but don’t want to push it out so as to not disappoint their overpaid workforce.
Is your software engineering job at risk of AI?
There is no point in beating around the bush. If you had to Google this question, you are probably not a top 10% software engineer in the world. Only way you job is not at risk, is if you are creating better AI than the ones that are currently available. Even that is unlikely to last very long as AIs are already fixing themself of bugs and even giving updates.
Pretty soon you will have an AI that will read through your text prompt, create code, allow customization, add relevant media and even content, test and also deploy – all for a $20 subscription. Okay, may be I am stretching it a bit, but you understand where this is going.
Don’t believe me? Just look at how Devin AI just stole a gig from a real human in Upwork!
That was my hot take on the subject. I would like to know what you think as well on the comment section below.