tl;dr: Chill, y'all: AI Will Not Devour SE

TL;DR

Despite fears, AI will not replace software engineering; instead, it will augment and transform the discipline by automating routine tasks and inspiring new architectures, while the core principles remain vital.

Contribution

The paper argues that AI innovations like LLMs will enhance rather than replace software engineering, emphasizing the discipline's resilience and adaptability.

Findings

AI can automate routine development tasks.

AI introduces new components and architectures.

SE will evolve but remain essential.

Abstract

Social media provide a steady diet of dire warnings that artificial intelligence (AI) will make software engineering (SE) irrelevant or obsolete. To the contrary, the engineering discipline of software is rich and robust; it encompasses the full scope of software design, development, deployment, and practical use; and it has regularly assimilated radical new offerings from AI. Current AI innovations such as machine learning, large language models (LLMs) and generative AI will offer new opportunities to extend the models and methods of SE. They may automate some routine development processes, and they will bring new kinds of components and architectures. If we're fortunate they may force SE to rethink what we mean by correctness and reliability. They will not, however, render SE irrelevant.