Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 14 minutes ago
AI coding feels magical… until you time it. ⏱️
A new controlled study found that experienced open-source developers were actually 19% slower with AI tools like Cursor Pro and Claude 3.5/3.7. Slower, not faster — even though it felt faster.
Why? In complex, mature codebases, AI often added friction: mismatched suggestions, context juggling, cognitive overhead. The demo magic didn’t hold up in real workflows.
⚠️ Caveat: small sample (16 devs), very advanced setup (5+ years in one repo). But the signal is strong enough to question the hype.
👉 Takeaway: don’t assume AI “just works.” Test it in your real environment before betting on productivity gains.
I’m Louis-François, PhD dropout, now CTO & co-founder at Towards AI. Follow me for tomorrow’s no-BS AI roundup 🚀
#AI #CodingLife #SoftwareEngineering #short
AI coding feels magical… until you time it. ⏱️
A new controlled study found that experienced open-source developers were actually 19% slower with AI tools like Cursor Pro and Claude 3.5/3.7. Slower, not faster — even though it felt faster.
Why? In complex, mature codebases, AI often added friction: mismatched suggestions, context juggling, cognitive overhead. The demo magic didn’t hold up in real workflows.
⚠️ Caveat: small sample (16 devs), very advanced setup (5+ years in one repo). But the signal is strong enough to question the hype.
👉 Takeaway: don’t assume AI “just works.” Test it in your real environment before betting on productivity gains.
I’m Louis-François, PhD dropout, now CTO & co-founder at Towards AI. Follow me for tomorrow’s no-BS AI roundup 🚀
#AI #CodingLife #SoftwareEngineering #short
