AI in my projects
I use artificial intelligence, mostly Anthropic’s Claude, but not in the same way from one project to the next. Here is what was done by hand, and what was done with AI.
How much AI, project after project
Project by project
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No AI
Styx, the bike
The bike’s design, electronics and onboard code were done by hand, with no AI-generated code.
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Partly
Styx Analyse
Part of the code was written with AI, in a chat, before tools like Claude Code existed: the whole code went back and forth between the editor and the conversation.
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Partly
D.E.D.A.L, the flight code
Some parts were generated by AI. But all of the onboard code, and above all anything to do with control, is reviewed and integrated by hand: the drone acts on the physical world, and I want to stay in charge of how it responds.
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Entirely
DEDAL Studio
The flight analysis tool was coded with AI from start to finish, what is known as “vibe coding”: I describe what I need after each test, and the AI writes the code.
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Entirely
D.E.D.A.L, the CFD tools
The tool that prepares and runs the airflow simulations around the drone was coded with AI, with Claude Code. The physics and the results are checked by hand.
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Entirely
Perdix
The simulator was coded from start to finish by AI, with Anthropic’s Opus 5.5 model. It is more an experiment in what LLMs can do than a real coding project.
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Entirely
This website
The site’s code was written with Claude Code. The texts start from my notes and explanations, are shaped with AI, and I read them before they go online.
What AI gave me
Honestly, it is an extremely powerful tool. It helped me understand an enormous amount about some fairly complex subjects, and I would find it hard to claim I could have carried out these projects without it.
The finish and quality of the projects have improved over time. Part of that comes from what I learned along the way. But for the analysis and simulation software, to be completely honest, the progress mostly follows that of the AI models and the arrival of Claude Code: you can see it from Styx Analyse to DEDAL Studio, then to Perdix.
What stays by hand
The ideas, the technical choices, the building, the testing and the flying. And, for everything that flies or rolls, reviewing the code that drives the motors.
A question about how a project was made? Write to me.