Why IDEs Won't Die in the Age of AI Coding: Zed Founder Nathan Sobo

The discussion centers on the future of IDEs in the age of AI, questioning whether traditional IDEs will become obsolete due to the rise of terminal-based and conversational AI coding tools. Nathan Sobo, founder of Zed, argues that visual interfaces for source code will remain essential for human understanding and collaboration with AI agents. He emphasizes that source code is a language intended for human consumption, highlighting the need for tools that facilitate navigation, editing, and real-time collaboration. Sobo shares his experience building Atom and Zed, explaining how Zed aims to integrate conversations directly into the coding environment, turning code into a metadata backbone. He also touches on the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) and its role in connecting various coding agents to different coding surfaces.