Google’s new weapon in the AI coding war

Today, we are diving into the recent talent acquisition drama and also Goldman Sachs adding AI in their system.

In today’s post:

• Google just poached the brainpower behind “vibe coding”

• AI coding tools might slow devs down

• Goldman Sachs hired an AI employee

• Trending AI tools + Resource to master AI

What’s Trending Today

AI talent

Google’s $2.4B move to rewrite the future of coding

Google isn’t just betting on AI coding, it’s buying its future. The tech giant has struck a $2.4 billion licensing and talent deal with Windsurf, the startup behind one of the fastest-growing approaches in developer tooling.

Here’s everything you need to know:

• Windsurf pioneered “vibe coding,” a new form of intuitive, AI-assisted development.

• Google won’t own the company, but it’s gaining access to its IP and top minds.

• Varun Mohan and co-founder Douglas Chen will now join DeepMind’s agentic coding team.

• “Agentic coding” is a leap from autocomplete, it aims for autonomous coding collaborators.

• OpenAI tried to acquire Windsurf earlier this year, but Google moved faster.

• Meta and Microsoft are also investing billions to win the AI developer market.

• Gemini, Google’s flagship AI, will now be equipped with Windsurf’s cutting-edge tools.

This isn’t just another AI hire. It’s a directional bet on how software will be written in the next five years. Google is signaling it wants to own the AI IDE. Whether that works depends on how well these minds mesh and how fast they can deliver.

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Confession

AI coding tools may not be the speed boost you think

AI coding tools are everywhere but are they actually helping? A new study by METR suggests that, for experienced developers, the promise of productivity may not hold up under pressure.

Here’s everything you need to know:

• METR ran a randomized trial with 16 seasoned open-source devs on real world tasks.

• Half the tasks allowed AI tools like Cursor Pro; the other half didn’t.

• Devs predicted AI would speed them up by 24%. It actually slowed them down by 19%.

• Most had general AI experience, but only 56% had used Cursor before.

• Researchers found AI slowed workflows due to time spent prompting and waiting.

• Large, complex codebases made it harder for AI to be effective.

• The study warns against assuming AI tools will offer instant productivity boosts.

AI tools aren’t silver bullets. They’re closer to interns, fast learners but not always helpful out of the box. The potential is real, but for now, performance depends heavily on the tool, the task, and the developer.

AI agents

Wall Street experiments with AI coworkers

Goldman Sachs is testing what might be Wall Street’s most unusual new hire: an AI coding agent. CIO Marco Argenti confirmed the bank will begin deploying “hundreds” of Devin instances as part of its software workforce.

Here’s everything about the agent:

• Devin, built by Cognition, went viral for its autonomous coding skills last year.

• Goldman plans to use it as a “new employee” to augment human developers.

• The bank currently has around 12,000 devs; AI could soon account for a notable share.

• Devin’s new version (2.1) is optimized for large, complex codebases.

• Argenti sees Devin as part of a hybrid model, not a replacement.

• Goldman has used dev copilots since 2024 and continues to push for early adoption.

• Some researchers have found Devin struggles with high complexity tasks despite the hype.

Goldman Sachs isn’t chasing trends, it’s testing the frontier. Devin might not be perfect, but it signals a shift: AI agents are no longer just demos or startups’ toys. They’re starting to show up on enterprise org charts.

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