Artificial Intelligence
Art by Clark MillerRise of the Cursor Resistance: Why Some Techies Want to Ignore AI Coding Tools
Bosses love the technology, which promises to lower costs and boost productivity. But wary engineers distrust its accuracy and worry that it will erode their job prospects.
Over the summer, two software engineers at Mixus, a San Francisco–based artificial intelligence startup, staged a bit of a rebellion by refusing to follow instructions to rely heavily on Cursor or any of the other popular new coding-assistance software.
They figured “they could do better than Cursor,” said an incredulous Shai Magzimof, Mixus’ co-founder.
With just five full-time employees, the duo’s revolt was a substantial headache for Magzimof. One of the anti-Cursor engineers said he used it to auto-complete individual lines of code, but that still wasn’t the type of heavy use Mixus wanted. “Are you joking?” Magzimof recalled asking the engineer.