Are you a sloppy coder? Do you skip “best practices” to get a critical job done fast? Is documentation just a little too OCD for your taste? Are you more interested in creativity than uniformity? Then look out. AI has you in its sights.
That’s the assessment of Yegor Bugayenko, founder and CEO of software engineering and management platform Zerocracy.
Writing in Communications of the ACM, Bugayenko predicted that in the future, robots equipped with Generative AI “will scrutinize the codebase, conduct analyses of the code, may even execute various tests before filing bug reports when anomalies are discernible. They will also initiate reports if they encounter code that is obfuscated, inadequately documented, devoid of automated tests, or fraught with security vulnerabilities. Moreover, they will flag code that deviates from established norms or best practices.”
What may be most disturbing is Bugayenko’s prediction that robot reports will be “so meticulously crafted, so replete with technical details and auxiliary links,” that they will be preferred to human-created reports.
Bugayenko listed several functions that AI robots would provide in the future. Among those are:
- Code Refactoring
- Backlog Prioritization
- Source Code Documentation
- Bug Fixing
- Onboarding Assistance
- Behavioral Prediction
- Performance Appraisal.
Bugayenko noted that his list was constructed with the help of ChapGTP, and he rather playfully asked, “What did we miss?”
Hmmm. Looks like AI will be deciding whether or not programmers keep their jobs. But don’t worry too much. We all know what a joke spell and grammar check apps have become. Maybe ChatGTP will follow in their footsteps. Maybe…