New AI assistant threatens software engineering jobs

San Francisco-based startup, Cognition AI, is trying to completely rehaul the software engineering landscape through its new AI assistant, Devin.

The AI assistant can plan and execute complex engineering tasks, learning from its experiences and rectifying mistakes along the way. Equipped with essential developer tools like a shell, code editor, and browser, Devin operates within a sandboxed compute environment, mirroring the setup of a human developer.

“Devin stands out due to its ability to actively collaborate with users during software development“, Cognition AI said in a blog post. This includes providing real-time progress updates, accepting feedback, and working together to make design choices. Overall, Devin acts as a seamless partner in the software development process, the company claimed.

Devin’s functionalities are diverse. It can learn unfamiliar technologies, build and deploy apps end-to-end, autonomously find and fix code-based bugs, train and fine-tune its AI models, address bugs and feature requests in open-source repositories, and contribute to mature production repositories. Its internet scouting abilities allow it to access educational resources quickly, enabling it to address complex tasks efficiently.