Tweet by btaylor

February 10, 2026

AI is your ghostwriter, but you are the author. I was speaking with my friend Arya about the complex dynamics software teams face now that most code is being generated by AI agents. There are very few natural bottlenecks to code “slop” - features over quality, and functionality over polish. I have made a point of banning speaking about AI as the author of code. Codex/Claude didn’t write that code, just like your table saw didn’t cut the wood - you did, with the help of AI. If we start speaking about AI that way, we remove the accountability of the engineer for the quality of the system they are producing. Arya put it succinctly in a way that I hadn’t heard before: AI is your ghostwriter, but you are the author. It’s your name on the cover of the book. I think the next year of software engineering will be building out the tools that enable all of us to be proud to sign our name to and take accountability for the increasingly complex systems we produce with our agents.

Author
btaylor
Date
February 10, 2026
Open on X