Pair Programming with AI in 2023

Originally published on GitHub

First, I want to acknowledge that my perspective as a beginner might differ vastly from that of a seasoned developer. I stumbled into AI-assisted coding out of curiosity. With no background in traditional programming, I made my first commit shortly after the launch of GPT-4. Since then I've developed a few React/NextJS apps, a website, a Slack integration, and helped my hackathon team take home the grand prize.

I started using Cursor in August 2023 and GitHub Copilot in November 2023. Each tool has its strengths, but Cursor, in particular, has become indispensable in my coding workflow. GitHub Copilot is evolving and shows promise, but in my experience, it hasn't quite reached the utility level of Cursor yet.

More generally, the evolution and similarities between Cursor and Co-Pilot hint at a profound change coming, not just for programmers but all computer-interfacing creative roles.

In the immediate future I think it's pretty likely that AI systems will have more direct control over the IDE. Cursor's most popular and effective features come from its deep integration and control within the IDE, a path GitHub Copilot seems to be emulating.

Then the AI's role in pair programming is going to quickly transition beyond suggesting code and chatting in the sidebar. It will evolve into a much more active participant, with the programmer's role becoming more supervisory.

With the current state-of-the-art foundational models, there's ample scope for enhancing these tools to become much more effective pair programming agents. Any next-generation language models will only accelerate this transition.

The programmer of the future might be more like an architect than a craftsman. Their focus will be high-level design, problem-solving, and ensuring that AI tools are aligned with project objectives and creative vision.

This transition is not limited to code, it's just the natural starting place due to the structured nature of organized repos and file structures.

This how most computer-aided creative software will work soon. Our Word docs and spreadsheets will have agents integrated in a similar manner. Agents will command the word processor just like they currently do the IDE, with input and oversight from practioners. They will have access to your files in the same way Cursor or Copilot can access your codebase. Agents will abstract away formulas and formating from spreadsheets almost entirely.

All this to say, the innovations from Cursor and Copilot are coming to software near you.

Note: This document was written using Cursor with assistance from GPT-4.