Unreviewed Code: How AI is Rewriting Software Development
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What is the Viqus Verdict?
We evaluate each news story based on its real impact versus its media hype to offer a clear and objective perspective.
AI Analysis:
The hype around this news is driven by the visual nature of the technology (the Digital Twin Universe) and the sheer ambition of the concept – but the underlying trend of LLMs increasingly automating complex tasks is undeniably real and will have a massive impact on the software industry.
Article Summary
StrongDM is shaking up the software development landscape with its ‘Software Factory’ approach, a process where coding agents autonomously generate, test, and deploy software without human intervention. This innovative team, led by Justin McCarthy, Jay Taylor and Navan Chauhan, has built a fully functioning system, leveraging the improved reliability of models like Claude Opus 4.5 and GPT 5.2, to create and manage digital twins of popular SaaS services – including Okta, Jira, and Slack – and even build a coding agent itself. The core principle is ‘no hand-coded software,’ driven by the belief that LLMs can reliably execute complex coding tasks if properly instructed. Their strategy involves utilizing scenario testing, where simulated user interactions and data flows drive the agents, combined with a Digital Twin Universe to validate the software across a multitude of conditions. The team’s approach is radically efficient, employing techniques like Gene Transfusion to extract patterns from existing systems and leveraging Semports for seamless code porting. A critical component is their ‘AI Context Store,’ a sophisticated system built on a DAG, designed to capture and manage conversation histories and tool outputs. While seemingly unorthodox, this approach tackles the escalating costs and timelines associated with traditional software development. A key takeaway is the ability to accelerate software delivery and experiment with new technologies far faster than traditional methodologies allow.Key Points
- LLMs can now generate code reliably enough to eliminate the need for human code review.
- Software development is being reimagined as a process driven by scenarios and simulations, instead of hand-coded software.
- Digital Twins—exact replicas of real-world systems—are being used to rigorously test and validate software, even in dangerous or impossible conditions.