Simon Willison on delivering AI generated code

Simon Willison published "Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work".

It frustrates me that the developer community is at a point in which posts like this need to be written, but let me share some highlights.

[Coworkers submitting huge untested PRs is] a dereliction of duty as a software developer.

A dereliction of duty as a software developer...

When I got into tech, nerds were proud to be nerds. People were excited about creating things with nothing but their ideas and a computer. Everyone in my community was excited to put in the work and we all celebrated the results. I loved it!

The pride and excitement in crafting something seems to be vanishing. AI enthusiasts question doing the actual work, and "Can't AI do this?" is one of 2025's most annoying questions.

Where did the pride in doing the work or becoming an expert go?

Tech workers (myself included) had a good run the last 15 years because we cared and built up expertise. Should we now really expect to make the same living with some prose prompting that everyone can learn in a couple of weeks? I really doubt it.

We call ourselves engineers; let's celebrate the craft, be excited about our own ideas, and put in the work to create software.

Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work. [...] Not doing that directly shifts the burden of the actual work to whoever is expected to review our code.

Every reckless AI submission can take someone else hours to deal with. Throwing unreviewed AI Slop onto someone else's table is careless and tells more about you than you think. Don't do it.

If AI did your part in five minutes, it rarely means that the work is done.

A computer can never be held accountable. That's your job as the human in the loop.

Claude won't get fired for your buggy pull request. Just saying...