Devin is a fully autonomous AI software engineer announced by AI startup Cognition on March 12, 2024. While previous AIs could generate code, Devin can handle everything from system design to debugging and deployment from prompts.
Devin’s Capabilities
Devin’s powerful capabilities can be confirmed through practical project applications. For example, if you want to play a game called “Game of Life” and ask Devin to create it, it performs the following steps:
- Create a new React application and install necessary dependencies including Chakra UI
- Set up the frontend environment using React and Chakra UI
- Start the development server and confirm the site is running on a private IP address
- Add the p5.js library via CDN to the index.html file for Game of Life implementation
- Implement and confirm the functionality and responsiveness of the Game of Life component in the React application
- Prepare the production build and deploy to Netlify
Through these steps, Devin completes everything from game creation to deployment in 13 minutes and shares the URL. This demonstrates that Devin enables people with no programming knowledge to create products.
Comparison of Devin with Conventional AI
According to SWE-bench evaluation, Devin accurately solved 13.86% of proposed issues end-to-end. SWE-bench is a capability test based on real software project issues, and Devin’s results are significantly superior compared to previous models like GPT-4 and Claude 2.
How to Use Devin
Devin is not generally available, but you can register for the waitlist on the official site. By registering for the waitlist, you can reserve the use of Devin.
Waitlist registration can be done from the following link:
To What Extent Can Fully Autonomous AI Replace Human Work?
Devin has the capability to enable people with no programming knowledge to create products. This raises the possibility that software engineer jobs could be replaced by AI. However, Devin is still under development, and whether the day when fully autonomous AI will actually replace software engineer jobs is unclear. Software engineers may need the ability to understand and modify code generated by AI.
Summary
Devin gave the impression of having evolved incomparably more than previous AIs. However, questions remain about whether the day when software engineer jobs are replaced by AI is approaching. It’s important to provide detailed information about Devin’s usage and introduction methods and stimulate discussion among developers and engineers.