Copilot X: Realizing the 10x Developer

Below is a readout of my prepared remarks from Web Summit Rio 2023.

Hello, Rio! I’m Thomas, and I’m a developer. I’ve been looking forward to this for some time, about a year. When I first planned this talk, I wanted to talk about the future of artificial intelligence and applications. But then I thought, why not show you the full power live on stage. Build something with code.

I’ve been a developer my entire adult life. I’ve been coding since 1989. But as CEO – I haven’t been able to light up my contribution graph in a while. Like all of you, like every developer, my energy, my creativity every day is finite.  And all the distractions of life – from the personal to the professional – from morning to night, gradually zaps my creative energy.

When I wake up, I'm at my most creative – sometimes I have a big, light bulb idea. But as soon as the coffee is poured. The distractions start. Slack messages and emails flood in. I have to review a document before a customer presentation. And then I hear my kids yell as their football flew over the fence. And, of course, they want me to go over to our neighbors and get it. 

Then...I sit back down, I am in wall-to-wall meetings. And by the time the sun comes down, that idea I had in the morning – it’s gone! It’s midnight and I can’t even keep my eyes open. To be honest, in all this, I usually don’t even want to get started because the perception of having to do all the mundane tasks, all the boilerplate work that comes with coding. It stops me in my tracks. And I know this is true for so many developers. 

The point is: Boilerplate sucks! All busywork in life, but especially repetitive work while coding — it is just the barrier between us and what we want to achieve. Everyday, endless boilerplate prevents a developer from building a new idea that will change the world. But with AI, these barriers are about to be shattered. 

You’ve likely seen the memes about the 10x developer. It’s a common internet joke–people have claimed the 10x developer many times. With Copilot and now Copilot X, it’s time for us to redefine this!! It isn't that developers need to strive to be 10x, it's that every developer deserves to be made 10 times more productive! With AI at every step, we will truly-create without captivity. With AI at every step, we will realize the 10X developer. 

Imagine: 10 days of work, done in one day. 10 hours of work, done in 1 hour. 10 minutes of work, done with a single prompt command. This will allow us to amplify our truest self-expression. It will help a new generation of developers learn and build as fast as their minds.  And because of this, we’ll emerge into a new spring of digital creativity, where every light bulb idea we have when we open our eyes for the day -- can be fully realized no matter what life throws at us. 

This morning I woke up, and I wanted to build something. I wanted to build my own Snake Game, originally created back in 1976. It's a classic. So, 15 minutes are left on my timer. And I'm going to build this Snake Game. Let’s bring up Copilot X and get going!

<begin live demo>

This is the end of my demo. Thank you for having me. I have been coding for 30 years and I have never been more excited about the future of software development. This is our moment. Software has eaten the world. Now it's AI's turn. The future has arrived. See you next time.