Cognition's AI agent Devin handles coding tasks autonomously. In just 18 months, Cognition has reached a $445 million revenue run rate and is reportedly raising capital at a $25 billion valuation.
Despite early skepticism, Devin’s performance on software engineering benchmarks (SWE-Bench) has jumped from 13% to nearly 90%, making it a primary choice for organizations like the U.S. Army and Goldman Sachs. Devin usage doubles every eight weeks.
CEO Wu emphasizes that Devin is designed as an autonomous agent that runs 24/7 in the background, rather than a simple autocomplete tool.
Wu is described as a legendary figure in competitive programming, having won three gold medals at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI).
Many of Wu's peers from the math olympiad circuit are now leading the AI industry, including the founders of Scale AI and Perplexity.
Wu believes AI will automate "raw mental strength," allowing humans to move from the drudgery of execution (survival mode) to pure self-expression and architecture (creative mode).
While AI excels at logic, Wu argues that humans still hold an advantage in "soft context"—the ability to retrieve specific, nuanced memories and historical experiences that inform decision-making.
Wu envisions a world where agents can eventually perform a "year of work" autonomously, narrowing the gap between an idea and its realization.