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AIDotDev Digest #003 : 75% of Devs Use AI—But At What Cost?

MCP keeps going viral, and Andrew Ng says that telling people not to learn coding is one of the worst career advice ever given.

Author

AIDotDev
March 30, 2025

Inside today’s AIDOT.DEV newsletter

Hello, AI devs! 
I watched a video from AI Dev 25 | Andrew Ng: Opening Keynote, where Andrew Ng debunks the idea that AI will make coding obsolete. He calls it “one of the worst career advice ever given.” History shows that easier coding tools lead to more people learning to code, not fewer. AI-assisted coding boosts productivity, speeds up prototyping, and sparks creativity. Instead of replacing programmers, AI makes coding skills even more valuable.

Bottom line: Learning to code is more important than ever!

In today’s AIDotDev:

  • 3 new AI develop news for coding and creating

  • 3 learning resources to sharpen your coding

  • 6 new AI tools

  • 1 cool AI cool project to inspire you

📰 AI DEV BITES

75% of Devs Now Using AI Tools, with Split Attitudes on Future Impact, says WIRED's Comprehensive Survey of 730 Engineers Across Experience Levels

The Details:

  • 17% of developers report using AI "almost constantly" in their workflow

  • Opinions are nearly split: 35.6% optimistic, 38.4% pessimistic, 26% neutral

  • Junior devs (75%) show highest optimism about AI, while mid-level engineers express most concern

  • Independent developers embrace AI 33% more than their corporate counterparts

  • Senior engineers (20+ years experience) prefer AI tools built into IDEs

  • 4% of developers admit to using AI tools secretly when employers prohibit them

Developer Impact:
Engineers report 4x productivity boost with AI, spending less time coding and more on architecture. This shift makes it harder for beginners to find jobs and experienced devs to keep their skills sharp.

Though AI makes programming knowledge more accessible, it raises security concerns as generated code enters production environments without proper scrutiny.

The most advanced AI model yet, designed to enhance reasoning and coding capabilities. The first release, Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, leads AI performance charts and advances problem-solving.

The Details:

  • Improved Reasoning: Gemini 2.5 models can reason through problems before responding, improving accuracy and contextual understanding.

  • State-of-the-Art Performance: 2.5 Pro tops the LMArena leaderboard and excels in common coding, math, and science benchmarks.

  • Optimized for Complex Tasks: With improved post-training, Gemini 2.5 is built for nuanced decision-making and deep analysis.

Developer Impact:
Gemini 2.5 Pro opens new possibilities for coding, automation, and research. It excels in AI-driven coding and debugging, with powerful multimodal processing for text, audio, images, and code repositories. Its support for 1 million tokens (expanding to 2 million soon) enables deeper data analysis, making it an essential tool for complex AI tasks.

The Qwen Team released QVQ-Max on March 28, 2025, A visual reasoning model that analyzes, reasons, and solves. It combines detailed observation with advanced reasoning to tackle tasks that matter to developers.

The Details:

  • Detailed Observation: Parses images, charts, and code screenshots with precision, spotting details you might miss.

  • Deep Reasoning: Goes beyond recognition to reason through problems—think debugging logic or interpreting complex diagrams.

  • Flexible Application: Useful for code refinement, script generation, and visual data analysis, it’s a versatile tool in your arsenal.

Developer Impact:
QVQ-Max boosts productivity by analyzing flowcharts for logic, critiquing or enhancing UI mockups, and handling text, images, and video. It’s great for automation, prototyping, and scripting. Future updates may turn it into a full-fledged visual AI assistant. More than a tool, QVQ-Max acts as a collaborator, helping you focus on building what matters.

Other Updates:

📚 CURATED LEARNING RESOURCES

Curious about AI-powered game development? Danny Limanseta's thread on X is a must-read! He built nine game prototypes in a month using AI tools like Grok, Cursor, and Windsurf.

From a "Vampire Survivors"-style gnome adventure to puzzle grids and 3D desert battles, his breakdown covers everything—setting up game infrastructure, refining mechanics, and perfecting "game feel."

Whether you're an aspiring dev or an indie creator, this thread is packed with insights to jumpstart your AI-driven projects. Check it out: Danny Limanseta’s 9 Game Prototypes.

Osmani breaks down which human skills still matter as AI takes over more coding tasks. The article gives practical tips for both senior and junior developers on the "30%" AI struggles with system design, handling edge cases, quality checks, and seeing the bigger picture.

Whether you're a seasoned engineer using AI to boost productivity or a junior dev planning your growth, this guide offers useful strategies to stay relevant. Give it a read to see how your role might evolve and which skills will keep you ahead.

Want to code smarter? The Vibe Coding 101 with Replit course shows you how to work with an AI coding agent to build web apps fast.

You'll learn to give clear prompts, let AI handle the heavy lifting, and focus on the big picture. By the end, you'll have built two real projects, website performance analyzer and a national park ranking app plus a solid AI-assisted coding workflow. It's hands-on, practical, and perfect for leveling up your dev skills.

⚙️ NEW TOOLS

  • DeepSite - Vibe coding with Deepseek

  • Unreal Engine MCP - Build your game using LLM-powered tools.

  • Playwright MCP - This server lets LLMs interact with web pages using structured accessibility snapshots, no need for screenshots or visually-tuned models.

  • Motia - AI Agent Framework Built for Software Engineers

  • 21st.dev Magic AI Agent - Like v0, but integrated into Cursor, WindSurf, or Cline. The 21st.dev Magic MCP server helps streamline frontend development.

  • Awesome MCP Servers - A list of MCP servers available for use.

🧸 AI-Powered Building: HOW PEOPLE DO IT

That's it for today!

Before you go, we'd love your feedback! Reply with your thoughts, feature requests, or AI discoveries you'd like us to cover. Your input helps shape and improve the AIDotDev experience.

Until next time—keep building the future!

Reach out us in [email protected]

Sam