I used the first AI Software Engineer for a week. This is happening.

Summary

In this video, the software engineer, with 30 years of experience, reviews Devin, an AI software engineer tool by Cognition Labs. The reviewer tests Devin on five projects, revealing its capabilities and limitations. Impressed by its autonomous problem-solving but concerned about verbosity and inefficiency, the reviewer believes Devin is a promising tool that will reshape software development, requiring engineers to adapt and upskill to stay relevant in the evolving tech landscape.

Takeaways

• 🤖 The script is a review of 'Deon', an AI software engineer tool developed by Cognition Labs, intended to assist or potentially replace human engineers.
• 🔍 The reviewer has 30 years of experience in software development and is initially skeptical about AI's capability to replace human jobs in the field.
• 🎯 The video aims to demonstrate Deon's capabilities by showcasing five projects it attempted to solve and providing an assessment of its performance.
• 👀 The reviewer was surprised by Cognition Labs' willingness to provide unrestricted access to Deon without asking for anything in return, which is unusual for new tech demos.
• 🛠️ Deon was tasked with creating a digital classification application using TensorFlow and the MNIST dataset, but encountered issues and required guidance to switch to a Flask API solution.
• 🎮 In building a Tic-Tac-Toe game, Deon successfully implemented the game logic and made iterative improvements based on the reviewer's feedback, showcasing its adaptability.
• 🌕 Deon attempted to run a complex lunar lander project from a GitHub repository, impressively migrating the code from TensorFlow 1 to 2, but unfortunately broke the original logic in the process.
• 🔧 Deon was given a take-home assessment for a full-stack engineer position and successfully built the backend using Python, with some back-and-forth needed to refine the UI and functionality.
• 📚 The reviewer found Deon's verbosity and the amount of code it generated to be concerning, as it sometimes included unnecessary or redundant code.
• 🚀 The potential value of Deon lies in its ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously, which could increase productivity in software development.
• 💡 The reviewer concludes that while Deon is not yet capable of replacing a good software engineer, it is a promising tool that will improve over time and could significantly impact the future of software development jobs.

Q & A

What is the purpose of the video script?

The purpose of the video script is to share the speaker's experience and assessment of Devin, an AI software engineer tool, after testing it for a week. The speaker aims to demonstrate Devin's capabilities and limitations, and to address concerns about AI replacing human jobs in software engineering.

Who announced the development of the first AI software engineer?

Cognition Labs announced in March that they were working on the first AI software engineer, which is the system referred to as Devin.

What was the speaker's initial skepticism about Devin?

The speaker was initially skeptical that Devin was just a piece of tech with a lot of marketing around it, and that it might be part of a marketing plot rather than a genuine technological advancement.

How did the speaker gain access to Devin for testing?

The speaker reached out to the team behind Devin and asked for access to the tool. They were granted access with no strings attached, which was surprising to the speaker given the unrestricted nature of the access.

What is the first project the speaker gave to Devin to solve?

The first project was to create a digital classification application with a web interface for uploading images of digits (1-5) and having the application classify and identify the digit using TensorFlow and the MNIST dataset.

What issue did Devin encounter during the first project?

Devin encountered an issue with using a TensorFlow JavaScript model and got stuck, requiring the speaker's intervention to guide it towards creating a simple Flask API instead.

What feature of Devin allows the user to interact and guide its work?

Devin has a feature that allows the user to type in instructions, add more information, or make corrections at any point while it's working, which helps in guiding it through tasks and resolving issues.

What was the outcome of the first project with Devin?

The first project was completed with some issues, but it was considered a successful project overall. However, there was a lot of dead code that was not being used, which was a downside.

What was the speaker's assessment of the second project, the Tic Tac Toe game?

The speaker found the second project, the Tic Tac Toe game, to be very impressive. Devin was able to build the game, make it smarter upon request, and even generate and display player names after several rounds of feedback.

What issue did Devin face with the lunar lander project?

With the lunar lander project, Devin faced the issue of breaking the original code's logic during the migration from TensorFlow 1 to TensorFlow 2, which resulted in the application not functioning as intended.

What was the speaker's overall assessment of Devin's capabilities and future impact on software engineering jobs?

The speaker believes that while Devin is not perfect and cannot replace a good software engineer at present, it is a real tool that will improve over time. Devin and similar tools will help produce more software of higher quality, but they will also demand that software engineers keep learning and adapting to stay relevant in the field.