Replit’s new AI agent can turn a simple prompt into a working app straight from your phone. Is this the end of traditional software development, or are we entering a new phase where anyone can build? This episode examines AI powered coding, how low code tools change software creation, and what happens when intelligence becomes widely accessible.
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Repet has released an agent app that not Only can code your ideas from a prompt But can do it from your phone does this Mean the end of software development as We know it or a grand age of flourishing Let's dig in welcome back to the AI Daily Brief one of the most profound and Important questions lurking underneath The Advent of artificial intelligence is What it's likely to do to human labor This is of course never far away from The discussion AI increasingly knows More than almost anyone at any given Field and agents are actually finally Coming online able to take on some Amount of tasks independently and more Than anything that exists today the Trajectory is just incredibly clear so What happens in a world where the cost Of intelligence Falls to zero will it Involve the chaotic destruction of the Economy and the replacement of all human Labor with robot brains or is there Another possibility for those looking For evidence an interesting place to Start is in the realm of software Development one of the great ironies of Software Eng ining in AI is that these Tools that this particular group have Built seem like they might be most in Line to displace that group the product That launched the latest round of Discussion is reet's new phone app if You're not familiar with replit they're
A new kind of coding assistant aimed at Non-developers at least that's what they Become more recently the idea is to Empower normal people to create apps and Websites with a single prompt and the Product has now gotten to the point Where embedded agents actually improve The users's prompt create the code debug And test and finally deliver a finished App within about 10 minutes this week They launched a version of the this for Phones bology shavasan writes okay this Finally solves coding on the go you have The idea you tap out the Tweet length Description into repet you hit improve Prompt and then the AI agents start Grinding away to make it check back on a Desktop a while later and you have a V1 Prototype the service at this stage is a Little limited most of the examples are Very simple and you're more likely to Have success building an exercise Tracker or a basic game than a more Complex fully featured app but this is Still absolutely a step change in Accessibility for programming Non-developers can now have a working Prototype without knowing the first Thing about coding it's fast cheap and Good enough to be very useful and Importantly repet is far from the only Company tackling this particular space John Rush In fact pointed to 24 AI Coding agents and Ides cursor softgen
Wind surf rapify co-pilot lovable bolt V0 repet Mars X Claude Amazon Q pair Devon GitHub spark idx web draw Tempo Klein continue data button base 44 Cotto And AER and whichever tool you pick it Seems pretty clear that these no and low Code apps are starting to insert Themselves earlier and earlier in the Software design process Paul Graham the Founder of white combinator recently Said that a CEO of a moderately big tech Company had replaced Figo with repet as Their design tool commenting repet is so Good at generating apps that they just Go straight to prototype Now Greg Eisenberg had a very similar example he Writes I had to laugh at our product Meeting last week while we were Discussing ideas for a new startup one Of my partners was quietly building it On vzero bolt repet Etc right in front Of us in real time by the time we Finished describing features of what if He had a working prototype on screen Suddenly we weren't having another Product meeting we were debugging no More imagine if we had conversations Instead it's look what happens when we The gap between imagination and reality Shrinks to minutes meetings become Workshops ideas become experiments Decisions become data driven what's more These services are getting major Traction across the software industry
Swix posted today I learned that cursor Is the fastest growing SAS in the History of sas1 to $100 million in 12 Months with a wide and small customer Base and as you might expect this has Led to a million x threads from the X Thread boys along the theme of this one From dval mwana writes rip web Developers in 90 seconds AI can generate A fully functioning website anden zeil Writes I think repet just wiped out a Jack load of developers mind-blowing Edward Frasier YC Alam even made an app With repet to find out how long it would Take for him to be replaced by repet After inserting a picture of his LinkedIn profile the app said he would Be fully replaced by 2028 Vey writes if Anyone can build an app from their phone What's our Edge as Founders and this Brings us to this question nominally About software developers but really About the world more broadly Of what happens when the cost of Intelligence and the skills associated With it crash to near zero I have long Said on this show that in a world where Code is on10th as costly and difficult To create we don't have on/ tenen of the Developers we have 10 times the amount Of code indeed my base case for all of Artificial intelligence is that we will Just live in a world of more more Software more content more everything
This will I think inevitably change what People spend their time doing corsera Founder Andrew ing writes Writing software especially prototypes Is becoming cheaper this will lead to Increased demand for people who can Decide what to build basically he's Talking about the rise of product Managers in their recent request for Startups why combinator wrote will Agents kill the job of software Developer no we'll need more human Software engineers in the future because Software is going to run almost Everything these humans won't write much Code directly instead they'll manage Teams of agents that build software for Them what's happening then is that the Barriers to entry for development are Being structurally lowered and while I Do believe that this is going to be the Most dramatic example that we've ever Seen we have seen this happen over and Over again in software engineering in The late '70s the release of the Apple 2 Led to an explosion in hobbyist coders Creating games in their bedrooms as 3D Engines became cheaper in the mid 2000s We saw a proliferation of Indie Games Mobile apps have become easier and Easier to create over the years and the Numbers keep climbing and this is to say Nothing of the proliferation of user Generated content as the cost of that
Type of production came down as well in Short none of the tools that previously Made developing software easier to Create was met by produc demand for Developers they simply cause more Software to be published and consumed This to me feels like the apotheosis of That Trend will Preble rights cannot Overstate how awesome repet is idea to MVP in minutes or hours for virtually Nothing we are entering a new era of Software development that is accessible To anyone with a phone and an idea in Other words to use the framing that's Been everyone's favorite for the last Week or so although in a very different Context we are in the midst of a javon's Paradox for intelligence javon's Paradox Is the idea that when techn technology Makes something more efficient like Using less fuel or energy it can Actually lead to more overall Consumption not less for example if new Technology makes cars more fuel Efficient driving becomes cheaper Instead of using less fuel overall People might drive more leading to an Increase in total fuel consumption the Paradox shows that efficiency Improvements don't always lead to Conservation in many cases they Encourage even more use of the resource And that I think fairly perfectly Describes what happens when we enter an
Age of intelligence that's too cheap to Meter and I will point out that when it Comes to coding specifically the impact Will not be limited to more people doing What software developers do now it's Going to be regular people who aren't Software developers doing totally new Things with software that wouldn't have Been done before when was the last time You saw a web application or a mobile App as the centerpiece of a major Marketing campaign pretty rarely right Strong bet that as creating code becomes Available in the marketer toolkit it Becomes every bit as regular a choice as A YouTube video or a blog post so if all The barriers to entry Creator does this Mean that all the developers and Entrepreneurs have no future first of All it's important not to underestimate Just how long change takes in practice Mike at nich down on Twitter writes AI Coding tools like cursor and repet will Make the world a wash with software Products but I don't think it happens Overnight most people are not persistent Any roadblocks at all and they quit Honestly just having to set up a Database and get API Keys is a challenge For some even though it's clicking and Copy paste these tools will improve but Right now it takes a lot of patience and Troubleshooting to get things working And the last mile of getting a great
Code output on text alone is a hard Challenge to solve even being on that Being able to create something is not The same as being able to create Something great if it was we'd have a Lot more very successful YouTube Channels rather than just a tiny tiny Fraction of content creators out there Being able to build a big audience from It and for that person who is asking What advantage startup Founders have This gets back to that classic Trope of Everyone having a friend who said oh I Had that idea first if only I had done It I'd be a billionaire in 2018 Sam Alman was talking at why combinator and He pointed out that startup Founders the Good ones don't just have an idea they Never stop having ideas he said you can Give a Founder an idea and they can Start a company the problem is they need To come up with new ideas for the Company basically every week you have to Come up with crazy new ideas and big Changes all the time we are at the very Very dawn of understanding what work and Creation look like in the future the Only thing that is clear right now is That more people are going to have a Totally expanded capacity to take the Things that are in their brain and make Them real in the real world it's very Very hard for me to see that as anything But just incredible potential that's
Going to do it for today's AI Daily Brief appreciate you listening or Watching as always and until next time Peace