We asked four AI coding agents to rebuild Minesweeper—the results were explosive
The idea of using AI to help with computer programming has become a contentious issue. On the one hand, coding agents can make horrific mistakesthat require a lot of inefficient human oversight to fix, leading many developers to lose trust in the concept altogether. On the other hand, some coders insist that AI coding agents can be powerful toolsand that frontier models are quickly getting better at coding in ways that overcome some of the common problems of the past.
To see how effective these modern AI coding tools are becoming, we decided to test four major models with a simple task: re-creating the classic Windows game Minesweeper. Since it's relatively easy for pattern-matching systems like LLMs to play off of existing code to re-create famous games, we added in one novelty curveball as well.
Our straightforward prompt: