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Shariq Ahmed
Shariq Ahmed

Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at Medium

Will Devin AI Replace Software Engineers? Not in the Next 5 Years. Period.

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Generating an entire codebase with one prompt. Check. Firing writers because ChatGPT-4, if not ChatGPT-3.5, can write like a writer. Check. Generating realistic images. Check.

Thanks to technology, especially AI, many fantasies were turned into realities. Agencies literally laid off writers because they thought ChatGPT-4 could write better — though, they learned their bitter lessons the hard way. And now this devil… no, Devin AI that is making people restless. Some aspiring software engineers are on tenterhooks. Because they have seen the impact of ChatGPT on writers and aren’t sure whether the same would happen to them or not.

But, no. Devin AI won’t take the jobs of software engineers in the next 5 years — I am not sure about the next 50 years, though. But, definitely, in the next 5 years, nothing can replace software engineers. But, what actually is Devin AI?

Well, it’s just an autonomous software engineer or a tool that can help software engineers. It has access to tools like the shell, code editor, and browser. It can browse the web using a terminal, write code in the code editor, and even learn from its mistakes. And if you don’t have to fret about codebase. It chooses language depending on the purpose.

It can even learn unfamiliar technologies, deploy apps, fine-tune AI models, solve bugs, contribute to repositories, and oh…complete real jobs on Upwork. It’s also kind of similar to AutoGPT. It got 13.86 % in Software Engineering Benchmark(SWE). This means that it solved 13.86% of the GitHub issues. ChatGPT-4 solved 1.74% issues. Further, it can create apps in a lot of languages. It chooses the language of the app based on its purpose. Phew…but, hey still Devin AI is behind software engineers.

If you are a software engineer, then you are safe right now. Currently, it can’t work fully as a software engineer. Devin AI — in my opinion — can be used to help software engineers. It can help you in some areas only. Software engineers will still be needed. And since Devin AI is in the early stages, it can’t handle complex real-world problems. And as far as its access is concerned, not everyone can get access. But, yes you can request it. I have already made the request. Let’s see when my request will be approved. After that, I’ll do a detailed analysis of it.

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