Devin, the world's first AI programmer, appears. Will he replace human engineers?

Source: Heart of the Metaverse

Just this week, a little-known startup Cognition Labs shocked programmers and coding experts all over the world.The team launched the world's " The first artificial intelligence software engineer”.

This is undoubtedly another major advancement in artificial intelligence technology, but the emergence of this AI programmer named Devin has made software engineers in the entire technology industry uneasy.

01.What is Devin?

Devin is a super-intelligent computer program developed by a company called Cognition. It's like a very smart assistant for software engineering tasks. With just a simple command, Devin can write code, build websites and make software independently.

What makes Devin special is its ability to think ahead and solve tough problems, but also to learn from its mistakes and improve over time. In addition, Devin can use tools that human engineers need to use in their work, such as code editors and web browsers.

Devin’s test performance is better than other artificial intelligence programs Much more. Devin solved nearly 14 out of 100 problems, while other programs solved less than 2. And, it’s not just this one test, Devin has done actual work on platforms like Upwork, fixing issues and reporting on them.

So, simply put, Devin is like a super smart assistant that helps engineers get their work done faster and better.

02.How does Devin work?

Devin understands and performs tasks related to software engineering by using advanced artificial intelligence algorithms. When prompted or instructed, Devin analyzes the request and uses its vast database of knowledge and problem-solving techniques to generate code, design a website, or develop software.

One of Devin’s main features is the ability to think ahead and plan complex tasks. It can make thousands of decisions based on a given task and learn from its mistakes to continuously improve performance. Devin also has access to basic tools like code editors and web browsers to complete tasks from start to finish.

Devin is also super adaptable. It can learn new technologies, tackle various engineering challenges, and even train its own artificial intelligence models. In addition, Devin can collaborate with human engineers in real time to provide updates, receive feedback, and contribute to design choices.

In short, Devin harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to automate routine tasks, streamlining workflows and allowing engineers to focus on more complex problems. By combining human expertise with machine intelligence, Devin represents a significant advance in software engineering technology.

03.What impact will Devin have on software engineers?

Software engineers who have survived the brutal wave of technology layoffs are now facing a dilemma: Artificial intelligence that can do their jobs is coming.

The "Artificial Intelligence Software Engineer" launched by Cognition Labs undoubtedly shocked software engineers.

The company was founded less than two months ago and is backed by Peter Thiel's venture capital fund. Cognition never expected to make engineers feel so anxious when it was founded.

After all, claims that software engineering is under threat have been rampant ever since the generative AI craze took off, with tools like ChatGPT proving capable of writing code based on human prompts.

However, Cognition’s artificial intelligence software engineers seem to be more capable.

Cognition stated that Devin has successfully passed Real engineering interviewsat a “leading AI company.”

Devin "did real work" on the freelancing platform Upwork. Not only can you build and deploy applications from start to finish, but you can also find and fix bugs.

When asked to use AI to solve problems and evaluate real-world open source projects on GitHub, Devin successfully fixed 13.86% of the problems without human assistance. That may seem low, but it's a huge jump compared to the previous top model, which corrected just 1.96% of the problems.

04. How will AI engineers develop in the future?

Cognition is led by CEO Scott Wu, and its capable team has won 10 gold medals in the extremely difficult International Informatics Olympiad. According to Cognition, the secret to its success is It’s about focusing on “reasoning.”

Most AI lacks a basic sense of reasoning; for example, generative AI tools rely on probability to determine which words can be strung together into a sentence. But Cognition believes that "solving reasoning problems" can "open up new possibilities in a wide range of disciplines."

Of course, the startup is also very cautious in introducing its own artificial intelligence software engineers.

Cognition hopes that Devin will be viewed as a "tireless, skilled teammate" who can fight alongside humans or complete tasks independently.

Devin is not designed to replace human engineers. Instead, it aims to work with human engineers to make their jobs easier.

Cognition wrote in the blog: "With Devin, engineers can focus on more interesting problems, and engineering teams can strive for more ambitious goals."

But this The release of the version made software engineers in the entire industry extremely uneasy.

Kyle, founder and software engineer of Athagist, a software development agency Shevlin, speaking on

Evan You, an open source developer from Singapore, raised more criticisms of Devin, saying it was "not of sufficient quality". And added: "A developer can only complete 13% of the work within the specified time, and is more like a burden than a talent."

However, Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, said Devin expressed his amazement,and called Devin “the first artificial intelligence to cross the threshold of human capabilities”.

These reactions are understandable at a time when software engineers are feeling the pressure.

For years, many have been treated like royalty in the tech world for playing a vital role in creating some of the world’s most powerful and profitable businesses, but where efficiency has become a guiding principle Today, many people are being laid off or asked to produce more products.

Promoted by Meta founder Zuckerberg and others, the discussion around efficiency in the technology world has rekindled the craze of "10x engineers". Simply put, it means having more engineers than peers 10x more productive engineers.

If artificial intelligence engineers continue to emerge, or prove to be closer to the "10x engineer" model than humans, it may keep software engineers awake at night.

Artificial intelligence has gradually threatened human jobs. Is it possible that we could see it take away the jobs of "Devin the Creator"?