AI agents will do programmers' grunt work

AI makers are flooding the market with a new wave of coding agents promising to relieve human programmers of busy work.The big picture: Automating the routine aspects of technical labor will almost certainly transform and downsize the tech industry workforce — but there's no guarantee it will alleviate software development's biggest headaches.Driving the news: Microsoft Monday announced a new AI coding agent for Github Copilot that's good for "time-consuming but boring tasks.""The agent excels at low-to-medium complexity tasks in well-tested codebases, from adding features and fixing bugs to extending tests, refactoring code, and improving documentation," Microsoft's post says.Github's move follows Friday's announcement by OpenAI of Codex, a "research preview" of a new coding agent that can "work on many tasks in parallel."Notably, the Github Copilot agent is powered not by Codex or any other tool from Microsoft partner OpenAI, but instead by Anthropic Claude 3.7 Sonnet, per Microsoft.The intrigue: Tech leaders have sent mixed messages on just how much work they see ahead for programmers. Amazon Web Services' then-boss Matt Garman caused a stir last year when he suggested the need for human coding could disappear within two years, However, he later told Axios that his comments were taken out of context."I think it's incredibly exciting time for developers," he told us last year. "There's a whole bunch of work that developers do today that's not fun.""If you think about documenting your code, if you think about upgrading Java versions, if you think about looking for bugs, that's that's not what developers love doing. They love thinking about, 'How do I go solve problems?' "Why it matters: Business transformations that start in Silicon Valley usually make their way into the wider economy.Silicon Valley's "dogfooding" tradition ensures that it will avidly apply new technologies to its own business first.Both Microsoft and Google are now claiming that roughly 30% of the code they produce is AI-written.Coding agents, like other generative AI tools, continue to "hallucinate," or make stuff up.But programs, unlike other kinds of language products, have a built-in pass-fail test: Either they run or they don't.That gives programmers one early checkpoint to guard against bad code.Yes, but: AI-generated code likely also contains tons of other errors that don't show up today. That will cause nightmares in the future as programs age, get used more widely, or face unexpected tests from unpredictable users.Zoom out: The software industry's assumption that what works inside tech will work everywhere else could be sorely tested when these techniques get pushed out beyond Silicon Valley. AI's usefulness in writing code may not easily transfer to other kinds of work that are less abstract and more rooted in physical reality — witness the many setbacks and challenges the autonomous vehicle industry has faced. Between the lines: Nobody doubts that AI means tech firms will write more code using fewer employees. But no one yet knows exactly where these companies will continue to find competitive advantage.AI models are much more likely to be interchangeable than human organizations and cultures.What's next: As coding agents shoulder routine labor, product designers and creative engineers will use "vibe coding" — improvisational rough drafting via "throw it at the wall and see what works" AI prompting — to do fast prototyping of new ideas.The bottom line: The biggest challenges in creating software tend to arise from poorly conceived specifications and misinterpretations of data, both of which are often rooted in confusion over human needs.Today's large language models are ill-equipped to tackle those problems. But software developers who excel at navigating the boundaries between human desire and machine capability should continue to find themselves in demand.

Comments

World news

Independent

Could Elon Musk build the Golden Dome? Here’s how much SpaceX CEO stands to gain

about 2 hours ago

Independent

Jake Tapper tears into ‘unethical, sleazy’ Hunter who acted like Biden family’s ‘chief of staff’ despite being ‘prone to horrible decisions’

about 2 hours ago

Vinícius won't get involved as Valencia makes legal threats over racism claim in Netflix documentary

Independent

Comments

Similar News

Actors call out Fortnite over ‘using AI to create Darth Vader voice’

Wake-up call: Leadership in the AI age

Congressional panel warns China running AI race better than understood

Watch terrifying vision of secret Chinese drone mothership that launches AI killer swarms – as it takes to skies in days

Musk’s AI bot Grok blames ‘programming error’ for its Holocaust denial

Trump's Gulf gamble: Helping UAE and Saudi become AI powers

Elton John says UK government being ‘absolute losers’ over AI copyright plans

Microsoft admits it provided AI to Israeli military for war in Gaza

Elon Musk's AI company says Grok chatbot focus on South Africa's racial politics was 'unauthorized'

AI poses new moral questions. Pope Leo says the Catholic Church has answers.

Elon Musk’s AI firm blames unauthorised change for chatbot’s rant about ‘white genocide’

Trump's AI deals in Gulf stir China fears back home

Trump agrees deal for UAE to build largest AI campus outside US

Lords examine new amendment to data bill to require AI firms declare use of copyrighted content

What are AI hallucinations? Computer expert breaks down why it happens, how to avoid it

Google dominates AI patent applications

Musk's AI chatbot spitting out "white genocide" claims unprompted about South Africans

Musk’s AI Grok bot rants about ‘white genocide’ in South Africa in unrelated chats

Republicans propose prohibiting US states from regulating AI for 10 years

Job hunter realizes he’s being interviewed by AI when the script starts glitching

World news

Could Elon Musk build the Golden Dome? Here’s how much SpaceX CEO stands to gain

Jake Tapper tears into ‘unethical, sleazy’ Hunter who acted like Biden family’s ‘chief of staff’ despite being ‘prone to horrible decisions’

Vinícius won't get involved as Valencia makes legal threats over racism claim in Netflix documentary

UN warns of 'ongoing tragedy' as Indigenous groups in Colombia face extinction

EU will provide emergency funds to help keep Radio Free Europe afloat after US cuts

Forensic audit into City of Richmond gift card spending expanded to last decade

Trump administration blames Canada, specifically Vancouver, for role in U.S. drug crisis

Manitoba says no to some U.S. bidders, but Tories say U.S. firms still getting work

Edmonton-area teacher faces child exploitation, pornography charges

Could the Site C dam’s massive worker camp end up in a B.C. landfill?

Manitoba government says it’s working to get promised tax credit to homeowners

Google is putting more AI in more places

Biden agreed to $4 million campaign salary for top aide: new book

Johnson nears last-minute SALT deal with blue state GOP holdouts

Trump says 'Golden Dome' will be operational in 3 years, taps Space Force official to run it

Capuchin monkeys on Panamanian island caught kidnapping howler monkeys

Chancellor Merz: Germany should have the biggest army in Europe

Tech tycoon Mike Lynch's doomed superyacht brought to surface nine months after tragedy

Forgetting George Clooney to mulling a wheelchair: Five key takeaways from upcoming Biden book

The Latest: US authorities appear to have begun deporting migrants to South Sudan, attorneys say

Housing migrants at Guantanamo Bay costs $100,000 per day per inmate, senator says

Man trying to race his wife home causes fatal crash, say police

Mike Johnson inches closer to passing Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ but holdouts remain

El Salvador arrests a prominent human rights lawyer on corruption charges

Tigers, jaguars and elephants are the latest to flee cartel violence in Mexico's Sinaloa

Japan's agriculture minister submits his resignation after inappropriate remark about buying rice

Canada in talks to join Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defence plan: PMO

Three dead and two missing after floods hit southern France

The Wargame: New podcast series simulates a Russian attack on UK

Street-legal electric golf carts now available to rent in Victoria

The Saskatoon Forestry Farm is hoping to expand

Kelowna to study potential switch from RCMP to municipal policing

Calgary Transit planning to revive storefronts in some CTrain stations

Preliminary work on plan to dredge Burrard Inlet underway, port says

Documents seem to show how Alberta inmate was wrongly released from jail

Albertans scramble to prepare for another possible Canada Post strike

Sister of Saskatoon homicide victim speaks out

B.C. businesses brace for disruptions as threat of Canada Post strike looms

US has deported Asian migrants to South Sudan, lawyers tell court

World leaders tell Israel to allow aid into Gaza as famine looms

McCormick Place in Chicago Found a Way to Reduce Bird Deaths

What Helped Clean Up Oklahoma Waters? Getting Cows to Use a Different Washroom.

Virginia Farmers Are Reviving a Tradition of Harvesting Herbs

Minnesota’s Green Crew Is Helping Teens Fight Climate Anxiety

From Oregon, a Chocolate Cake That Changes Hearts and Minds

Biden's deterioration unnerved House Democrats as early as 2023, new book reveals

Schumer blasts Thune for choosing "nuclear option"

"Blatantly defied" court: Lawyers say Trump admin deported immigrants to South Sudan

Biden camp pushes back against suspicion over cancer diagnosis timing

Trump unveils plans for Golden Dome system that will put weapons in space

Behind the Scenes of In the Dark Season 3

Full list of UK sanctions against Israel over Gaza

Kid Cudi set to take the stand and testify against Diddy. Here’s what’s been said at trial so far

Elon Musk’s companies see reputations crumble as backlash from his work with DOGE hits his ventures

Mom arrested after her 6-year-old special needs daughter drowned in lake

Jerry Falwell Jr. to get $15 million payout after Liberty University sex scandal

Donald Trump’s savage swipe at reporter during live broadcast goes viral