Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has claimed that the majority of the company’s new code is written by artificial intelligence, with close to 100% of engineers at the trading platform utilizing AI code editors. During an interview on the 20VC podcast, Tenev estimated that approximately 50% of new code at Robinhood is AI-generated. However, he acknowledged that this figure is imprecise due to the use of advanced ‘agentic’ code editors, which have made it difficult to distinguish human-written code from AI-generated code.
According to Tenev, the company has evolved from using GitHub Copilot to Cursor and now to Windsurf, where ‘nearly all of the code is written by AI.’ He emphasized that only a ‘minority’ of new code at Robinhood is written by human developers. This shift in coding practices reflects a broader trend in the tech industry, where AI-assisted development is becoming more integrated into the software engineering workflow.
The CEO’s remarks have sparked discussions about the implications of AI in software development, particularly concerning the role of human developers and the potential for increased efficiency. While some view this as a positive development for productivity, others raise concerns about the impact on job security and the quality of code generated by machines. As AI tools continue to evolve, their role in shaping the future of software development will be a critical topic of conversation in the tech industry.