Trustworthy and Synergistic Artificial Intelligence for Software Engineering: Vision and Roadmaps

Xavier Franch Julien Siebert Anna Maria Vollmer + 5 lainnya

5 Mei 2021

AI-based systems are software systems with functionalities enabled by at least one AI component (e.g., for image-, speech-recognition, and autonomous driving). AI-based systems are becoming pervasive in society due to advances in AI. However, there is limited synthesized knowledge on Software Engineering (SE) approaches for building, operating, and maintaining AI-based systems. To collect and analyze state-of-the-art knowledge about SE for AI-based systems, we conducted a systematic mapping study. We considered 248 studies published between January 2010 and March 2020. SE for AI-based systems is an emerging research area, where more than 2/3 of the studies have been published since 2018. The most studied properties of AI-based systems are dependability and safety. We identified multiple SE approaches for AI-based systems, which we classified according to the SWEBOK areas. Studies related to software testing and software quality are very prevalent, while areas like software maintenance seem neglected. Data-related issues are the most recurrent challenges. Our results are valuable for: researchers, to quickly understand the state-of-the-art and learn which topics need more research; practitioners, to learn about the approaches and challenges that SE entails for AI-based systems; and, educators, to bridge the gap among SE and AI in their curricula.

Hazrina Sofian R. Ahmad Nur Arzilawati Md Yunus

2022

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a core feature of today’s real-world applications, making it a trending topic within the software engineering (SE) community. The rise in the availability of AI techniques encompasses the capability to make rapid, automated, impactful decisions and predictions, leading to the adoption of AI techniques in SE. With industry revolution 4.0, the role of software engineering has become critical for developing productive, efficient, and quality software. Thus, there is a major need for AI techniques to be applied to enhance and improve the critical activities within the software engineering phases. Software is developed through intelligent software engineering phases. This paper concerns a systematic mapping study that aimed to characterize the publication landscape of AI techniques in software engineering. Gaps are identified and discussed by mapping these AI techniques against the SE phases to which they contributed. Many systematic mapping review papers have been produced only for a specific AI technique or a specific SE phase or activity. Hence, to our best of knowledge within the last decade, there is no systematic mapping review that has fully explored the overall trends in AI techniques and their application to all SE phases.

Tahsinur Rahman M. Akbar Muhammad Hamza + 1 lainnya

17 Desember 2023

This paper investigates the dynamics of human-AI collaboration in software engineering, focusing on the use of ChatGPT. Through a thematic analysis of a hands-on workshop in which 22 professional software engineers collaborated for three hours with ChatGPT, we explore the transition of AI from a mere tool to a collaborative partner. The study identifies key themes such as the evolving nature of human-AI interaction, the capabilities of AI in software engineering tasks, and the challenges and limitations of integrating AI in this domain. The findings show that while AI, particularly ChatGPT, improves the efficiency of code generation and optimization, human oversight remains crucial, especially in areas requiring complex problem-solving and security considerations. This research contributes to the theoretical understanding of human-AI collaboration in software engineering and provides practical insights for effectively integrating AI tools into development processes. It highlights the need for clear role allocation, effective communication, and balanced AI-human collaboration to realize the full potential of AI in software engineering.

Usman Rafiq Jorge Melegati Chetan Arora + 12 lainnya

28 Oktober 2023

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools have become increasingly prevalent in software development, offering assistance to various managerial and technical project activities. Notable examples of these tools include OpenAIs ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Amazon CodeWhisperer. Although many recent publications have explored and evaluated the application of GenAI, a comprehensive understanding of the current development, applications, limitations, and open challenges remains unclear to many. Particularly, we do not have an overall picture of the current state of GenAI technology in practical software engineering usage scenarios. We conducted a literature review and focus groups for a duration of five months to develop a research agenda on GenAI for Software Engineering. We identified 78 open Research Questions (RQs) in 11 areas of Software Engineering. Our results show that it is possible to explore the adoption of GenAI in partial automation and support decision-making in all software development activities. While the current literature is skewed toward software implementation, quality assurance and software maintenance, other areas, such as requirements engineering, software design, and software engineering education, would need further research attention. Common considerations when implementing GenAI include industry-level assessment, dependability and accuracy, data accessibility, transparency, and sustainability aspects associated with the technology. GenAI is bringing significant changes to the field of software engineering. Nevertheless, the state of research on the topic still remains immature. We believe that this research agenda holds significance and practical value for informing both researchers and practitioners about current applications and guiding future research.

Stefan Albert Horstmann U. Trento Tufts University + 17 lainnya

10 Mei 2024

Following the recent release of AI assistants, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot, the software industry quickly utilized these tools for software development tasks, e.g., generating code or consulting AI for advice. While recent research has demonstrated that AI-generated code can contain security issues, how software professionals balance AI assistant usage and security remains unclear. This paper investigates how software professionals use AI assistants in secure software development, what security implications and considerations arise, and what impact they foresee on secure software development. We conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with software professionals, including software engineers, team leads, and security testers. We also reviewed 190 relevant Reddit posts and comments to gain insights into the current discourse surrounding AI assistants for software development. Our analysis of the interviews and Reddit posts finds that despite many security and quality concerns, participants widely use AI assistants for security-critical tasks, e.g., code generation, threat modeling, and vulnerability detection. Their overall mistrust leads to checking AI suggestions in similar ways to human code, although they expect improvements and, therefore, a heavier use for security tasks in the future. We conclude with recommendations for software professionals to critically check AI suggestions, AI creators to improve suggestion security and capabilities for ethical security tasks, and academic researchers to consider general-purpose AI in software development.