Simon Willison quotes on AI, with sources

Independent developer and writer · 11 quotes · latest Aug 19, 2026

Quotes

11 of 11 quotes, newest first

Date	Quote	Context	Source
Aug 19, 2026	I can churn out code a hundred times faster. I don’t have the cognitive capacity to stay on top of 100 times the amount of code. So you still need a team of engineers, so you can load balance that cognitive capacity across the team.Aug 19, 2026· Post	PostConceptual integrity and counting lines of code	Source
Aug 19, 2026	I can do way more work as a single engineer than I could without agents.Aug 19, 2026· Post	PostConceptual integrity and counting lines of code	Source
Aug 19, 2026	It used to be that the discipline was enforced on you by the amount of time it took.Aug 19, 2026· Post	PostConceptual integrity and counting lines of code	Source
Aug 19, 2026	That’s exactly the problem with coding agents and software: it’s very easy to keep adding new rooms, because the cost of adding those rooms is so much cheaper.Aug 19, 2026· Post	PostConceptual integrity and counting lines of code	Source
Dec 31, 2025	A prompt injection attack against a browsing agent that can exfiltrate or modify that data is a terrifying prospect.Dec 31, 2025· Post	Post2025: The year in LLMs	Source
Dec 31, 2025	But if you define agents as LLM systems that can perform useful work via tool calls over multiple steps then agents are here and they are proving to be extraordinarily useful.Dec 31, 2025· Post	Post2025: The year in LLMs	Source
Dec 31, 2025	Claude Code and friends have conclusively demonstrated that developers will embrace LLMs on the command line, given powerful enough models and the right harness.Dec 31, 2025· Post	Post2025: The year in LLMs	Source
Dec 31, 2025	I think that’s a waste of a great term, especially since it’s becoming clear likely that most programming will involve some level of AI-assistance in the near future.Dec 31, 2025· Post	Post2025: The year in LLMs	Source
Dec 31, 2025	The most impactful event of 2025 happened in February, with the quiet release of Claude Code.Dec 31, 2025· Post	Post2025: The year in LLMs	Source
Dec 31, 2025	The reason I think MCP may be a one-year wonder is the stratospheric growth of coding agents.Dec 31, 2025· Post	Post2025: The year in LLMs	Source
Dec 31, 2025	This turns out to be the big unlock: the latest coding agents against the ~November 2025 frontier models are remarkably effective if you can give them an existing test suite to work against.Dec 31, 2025· Post	Post2025: The year in LLMs	Source

About Simon Willison

Independent developer and writer. Listed here for public statements only; no personal details. Initials instead of a photo.

Topics: Coding, Work, Agents, Safety, Platform-shift

Sources: the primary source linked on each quote, checked weekly. A quote is one moment; read the source. Logos via logo.dev; trademarks belong to their owners.

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