Goldman Sachs is testing a new autonomous programmer based on artificial intelligence from startup Cognition. The program, named Devin, will be part of the bank's team of 12,000 developers.
Introducing Devin
Devin gained recognition in tech circles last year when Cognition announced it had created the world's first AI software engineer. Demo videos showcased the program working as a full-stack engineer, completing multi-step assignments that traditionally required human developers. "We're going to start augmenting our workforce with Devin, which is going to be like our new employee who's going to start doing stuff on behalf of our developers," Argenti said in an interview this week.
Accelerated AI Adoption
According to Argenti, Goldman plans to initially deploy hundreds of Devin units, which could scale to thousands depending on use cases. The AI will be supervised by human employees and will handle routine tasks that engineers often consider drudgery, such as updating internal code. The speed of AI adoption across corporate America has reached what Argenti describes as 'dizzying' rates, with many major companies already using AI to automate significant portions of work.
Impact on Jobs
The bank's move could spark fresh anxiety on Wall Street about job cuts resulting from AI implementation. Earlier this year, Bloomberg predicted that banks worldwide might cut as many as 200,000 jobs over the next three to five years due to AI technology. Argenti, who joined Goldman from Amazon, envisions a 'hybrid workforce' where humans and AI work side by side.
Goldman Sachs' deployment of Devin marks a pivotal moment in the financial industry's transformation, signaling broader changes spurred by the rapid advancement of AI technology.
