Is Devin AI replacing Software Engineers Job?

I was talking to my friend and then he mentioned that Devin, not devil, so basically we got a new platform or a new AI tool which claims to be the first AI software engineer. So when you say an AI software engineer, which simply means that it is going to replace all the humans or all the human developers, is it?

The case, let's talk about it. So from the past few days, wherever I go, it can be Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, all the platforms are talking about the same thing. People are posting about this new tool which might replace the developers. I mean that's what the company claims, right? Because as a developer, what is your job?

Your job is to build applications and when you do it, of course, you will face errors, you will face bugs, and then Devin says, "I cannot simply build an application but also if there's some bugs I will resolve it," that's what they claim. Again, they have tested it in their own environment, I'm not sure once we have access to it we'll be able to do it, that's something we have to wait and watch. But the thing is, if you really think about Devin as a software engineer, is it really a software engineer?

Is Devin Software Engineer will take our job ?

Now let's go back to the world where people used to write code on a simple editor, it can be a notepad. In fact, I started my career with notepad. In fact, I used to write code on notepad, compile using Java compiler on the command prompt, or maybe if you're working on C from a long time, you might have used C++.

The thing is, all these tools, basically you as a programmer have to type code, there's no help there. And slowly the ecosystem started evolving for developers where we got help in terms of syntax completion or debuggers and all these tools available, the testing tools available, there are a lot of tools available for you as a developer so that you can be more productive.

Right? And then still things started changing with the AI tools. So at the end of last or last year basically, we got this new tool called ChatGPT, and then of course, with great marketing, not by them, but by the people, everyone started talking about ChatGPT, "Hey, you know we don't need developers now ChatGPT will give you the code." But then there's one little problem here, whenever you get this suggestions from ChatGPT or whenever you get the code, most of the time it will not work.

Of course, it will give you a code which is almost complete but as a developer you have to look, get the code, make some changes, and then it will work. I mean not just ChatGPT now we got co-pilot Google GitHub co-pilot, we got AWS code whisper, there are so many tools available right which are part of your IDE. Example I use co-pilot a lot with my Intellij for development and then it helps me to complete the code, it helps me with the suggestions. And also we got a tool where it will create a project, you just give a prompt and it will give you the project. I tried it but it never works, I have never got the project which works on the first go. I have to make some changes.

Is devin really going to replacing all developer ?

Not exactly. Let's say if you have a team of five and now since AI is helping you, you might need a team of three people, right? Or two, right? In the best case. But the thing is, you need human developers to understand the code given by the AI tools and most of the time they give you weird code which is not structured, which is not even a clean code and then you have to refactor the entire code to make it work. Ultimately you are spending enough amount of time.

See, as time progresses it will improve for sure, but then with co-pilot you can use it and you can make it work. You need an experienced developer who can make the changes. Okay, why I mention experienced developer here is because for a fresher, you can write your own code but then when someone else is giving their code to you, it's difficult to read for freshers and that's why it takes some time for freshers to understand others' code. It may take one or two years so you become experienced developer.

But that's the thing right? Even if you want to use AI tool, you need expertise and that's why we were happy with all these AI tools because they were helping you. But now we got Devin and Devin says, "Okay, so I will give you the code." You'll be saying, "Hey, we are getting that from other tools as well." Now Devin says, "You don't even have to debug by yourself, I will do it for you as a human." Okay, so if you get, for example, if you get the error, if you are facing some bugs, what you do? You write print statements to see which function is getting called, what is not getting called, and then you debug in that way.

Devin says, "I will do the same thing." And we are a bit concerned now because if Devin can write a code, if Devin can debug a code, in fact, it also says that they can even deploy the code on the production, they also say that they can find bugs in the open source projects. I mean this is scary for developers, right? Because that's our job and we are proud of being developers or coders, you can say.

Finally Devin will not going to replace any software Job 

But here's the thing. Every new technology creates that perception that you are out of job. With blockchain, with cryptocurrencies, with banks are going obsolete, with computers in the year 2000, without all the other jobs are going to be obsolete because computer can do everything.

But no, every time you got a new technology, you get a new set of vacancies, you get a new set of positions available, right? And with AI, it will be, but still when you talk about software engineering, it's not about coding, that's one of the biggest misconceptions we have. So if you tell someone you're a software engineer, they directly relate you to code and they are imagining you that the entire day you are sitting on your desk and typing code. No, that's not what we do all the time.

Of course, we love writing code but that's not what we do the entire day. I would say only 20% of our task is actually on keyboard, 80% goes here, right? And that's where human excel. AI can help you with the code, AI can help you debug the application, AI can give you some tips, some suggestions but it cannot replace the human thinking yet. I'm saying yet is because I'm not sure what is going to happen in future but at this point AI cannot replace in terms of strategic thinking.

See ultimately when you build a software or a solution, you give it to your client and your clients are human and only human can think what other humans want and most of the time your client has no idea what they want, they have a problem, you have to provide a solution to them and most of the time they don't even know the problem, they know there's something wrong. So they consult with you and they will say okay this is a problem,