#19 - 🚀 AI's Shifting Role: From Writing to Reviewing Code

Hey readers! 👋 This week we're diving into the fascinating shift happening in software development as AI tools evolve from simply generating code to becoming sophisticated review partners. With GitHub's CEO confirming that "AI coding is here to stay," we're seeing the role of engineers transform before our eyes. Let's explore what this means for your workflow!

This Week's Highlights 🔍

The Changing Role of Software Engineers

AI Code Review Hot Takes with Merrill Lutsky, CEO at Graphite — Graphite's CEO highlights how engineering roles are shifting from writing code to reviewing it, with AI now handling much of the generation work. – Codegen

GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke on Copilot, vibe coding, and AI's next chapter — Dohmke confirms that AI coding is permanent and discusses how up to 30% of some Microsoft code is now AI-generated. – Alex Heath

Vibe coding is here to stay — Paul Graham notes that many vibe-coded applications are proving financially successful, suggesting this trend has staying power.

AI Code Review Tools

Free AI code reviews for VS Code — CodeRabbit offers free AI-powered code reviews directly within VS Code, providing senior-engineer level feedback without disrupting your workflow.

CodeRabbit IDE Extension upgraded — The popular extension now delivers even better reviews, enhancing developer productivity.

Slow feedback breaks momentum — Justin Reock explains how embedded AI agents can deliver real-time, contextual feedback, removing one of the biggest drains on developer focus.

Multi-Agent Approaches

Coding Agent Teams: The Next Frontier in AI-Assisted Software Development — The industry is moving from single AI coding assistants to teams of specialized coding agents, enhancing efficiency through parallel task execution.

Multi-agent AI workflows: The next evolution of AI coding — This approach mirrors human engineering teams, with specialized AI agents handling specific roles throughout the development lifecycle. – Bill Doerrfeld

AI Agents Transform Platform Engineering at Microsoft — Microsoft's platform engineering team is using AI agents to autonomously analyze code, generate pull requests, and implement updates across thousands of codebases. – Darryl K. Taft

Model & Tool Updates

OpenAI's GPT-5 is here — GPT-5 achieves 74.9% accuracy on SWE-bench Verified, more than doubling GPT-4o's 30.8%, with an 80% reduction in factual errors.

Cline v3.25: The Coding Agent Built for Hard Problems — Cline addresses context degradation in multi-turn conversations with three key systems: Deep Planning, Focus Chain, and Auto Compact.

JetBrains introduces new AI quota model — Starting August 18, JetBrains will implement a more transparent quota system where each subscription tier provides AI credits equivalent to its price.

Gemini CLI now with VS Code Integration — The update includes over 120 merged PRs from 40+ contributors, with features like in-IDE diff handling and optimized context for code deltas.

Developer Experience & Trends

Stack Overflow's 2025 Report — While 84% of developers use or plan to use AI tools (up from 76% in 2024), trust in AI-generated output has dropped to 33% (down from 43%). – Baptiste Fernandez

Replit AI vs Cursor IDE comparison — Cursor has higher industry adoption (94% vs 86%), but Replit might be better for specific cloud IDE needs.

Completions still matter — Despite the rise of autonomous coding agents, code completions remain crucial and will likely become even more useful in the coming years.

Security Alert ⚠️

Remote Code Execution in GitHub Copilot (CVE-2025-53773) — A critical vulnerability allows for remote code execution through prompt injection that bypasses all user approvals. Update immediately if you use Copilot.

Agentic Coding and the Weakness of Extensions for IDEs — A developer lost half a million dollars due to a malicious VS Code extension, highlighting security risks in the current extension marketplace model. – David Eastman

Other Noteworthy Updates

Genspark AI Developer launched — A reimplementation of 'Claude Code' available on both browser and mobile platforms, designed for users with no coding experience.

Bolt integrates Claude Sonnet 4 — The new 1 million context window allows the agent to read entire codebases and understand project architecture with unmatched comprehension.

Codex CLI upgraded to version 0.20.0 — The update fixes copy-paste issues in Mac terminals and transitions from TypeScript to Rust for better performance. – Simon Willison

That's all for this week! As AI continues to reshape software development, we're seeing a clear shift from AI as a code generator to AI as a collaborative partner in the development process. The focus on code review, multi-agent systems, and improved model accuracy suggests we're entering a new phase where AI helps us build better software faster, rather than simply replacing human coding.

What AI tools are you finding most valuable in your workflow? Hit reply and let us know!

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