Simon Willison • 1/28/2026

The Five Levels: from Spicy Autocomplete to the Dark Factory

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The article explores Dan Shapiro's five-level model for AI-assisted programming, analogous to levels of driving automation. It ranges from 'spicy autocomplete' (Level 0) to a fully autonomous 'dark software factory' (Level 5), where AI agents handle all coding and testing without human review, and humans focus on system design and validation.

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#software development #automation #code generation
The Five Levels: from Spicy Autocomplete to the Dark Factory

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