“Engineers are becoming sorcerers” | The future of software development with OpenAI’s Sherwin Wu

Wu describes an engineering organization where AI writes most code and reviews every pull request. The measurable claim is that 95% of engineers use Codex and engineers who use it more open 70% more pull requests, although he distinguishes those observations from a claim that every production line is AI-authored.

The new role resembles technical leadership over a fleet of agents. Engineers must steer parallel work, supply context, review outputs, and prevent agents from drifting. Wu uses the wizard and Sorcerer's Apprentice metaphors to capture both the leverage and the danger: high-powered instructions can make software do far more, but unattended work can run out of control.