Startup unveils “world’s first” complete AI software engineer

Devin can build websites, debug code, and even train new AIs.
Subscribe to Freethink on Substack for free
Get our favorite new stories right to your inbox every week

The race to build the world’s first AI software engineer just got a new entrant — and they may have already won.

AI software engineer: Computer code underpins practically everything we see and do on our devices, not to mention a vast and growing number of jobs and businesses, which means the people writing that code — software engineers — play an essential role in shaping the digital world.

But what if anyone could write their own code without first spending months or even years trudging through bootcamps and tutorials? What if it was as easy as describing the app or website they wanted to create to an AI software engineer?

Several startups are racing to make this vision a reality, and one of them — the Peter Thiel-backed Cognition Labs — believes it is already crossing the finish line with Devin, “the world’s first fully autonomous AI software engineer.”

“Devin is a tireless, skilled teammate.”

Cognition Labs

Introducing Devin: On March 12, Cognition emerged from stealth to publish a detailed blog post on Devin that included several demo videos showing how users could easily prompt the AI to build and deploy apps, debug existing code, and even train brand new AIs.

“Devin is a tireless, skilled teammate, equally ready to build alongside you or independently complete tasks for you to review,” wrote Cognition. “With Devin, engineers can focus on more interesting problems and engineering teams can strive for more ambitious goals.”

The reaction: The Twittersphere was quick to weigh in on Devin, with several tech leaders praising the AI — Rowan Cheung, author of the popular AI newsletter The Rundown, for example, said it was “the most capable autonomous coding agent [he’s] seen.” 

Cognition has started making Devin available to select users upon request, too, and those who’ve had a chance to test it seem impressed as well.

Bloomberg reporter Ashlee Vance, for example, said it only took about 5-10 minutes for Devin to create a website from the ground up and noted that the AI “does appear to be well ahead of the other coding assistants in many respects.”

Looking ahead: Exactly how Cognition managed to jump ahead of the pack isn’t clear — it’s yet to elaborate on how its AI software engineer works, but says it plans to publish a more detailed technical report “soon.”

As for when it plans to make Devin widely available, that’s TBD, so another company training AIs to code — like Magic AI — could potentially beat Cognition to market.

Regardless of who gets there first, though, if any of these companies is able to develop a true AI software engineer that anyone can use, it could be one of the most powerful applications for AI the world has ever seen.

We’d love to hear from you! If you have a comment about this article or if you have a tip for a future Freethink story, please email us at [email protected].

Subscribe to Freethink on Substack for free
Get our favorite new stories right to your inbox every week
Related
Why America reinvents itself every 80 years — and is doing so again
Three separate theories help explain why America enters a period of great progress every 80 years — and why another is coming soon.
How DeepSeek rewrote the rules of the AI race
Chinese startup DeepSeek has proven that vast quantities of capital and cutting-edge chips aren’t prerequisites for world-class AI.
Kevin Kelly points a new way forward into the Age of AI
One of the most original and optimistic thinkers in America helps build out some big through lines on what’s possible with AI in the next 25 years.
The artifact isn’t the art: Rethinking creativity in the age of AI
ChatGPT’s Studio Ghibli imitations invite questions about the creative value of people and what we really mean when we talk about creativity.
The next era of psychedelics may be precision-designed states of consciousness
A look inside Mindstate Design Labs’ effort to design drugs that reliably produce specific states of consciousness.
Up Next
A hand is holding a globe, symbolizing the impact of climate change.
Subscribe to Freethink for more great stories