Artificial intelligence and recent advances in deep learning architectures, including transformer networks and large language models, change the way people think and act to solve problems. Software engineering, as an increasingly complex process to design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain large-scale software systems for solving real-world challenges, is profoundly affected by many revolutionary artificial intelligence tools in general and machine learning in particular. In this roadmap for artificial intelligence in software engineering, we highlight the recent deep impact of artificial intelligence on software engineering by discussing successful stories of applications of artificial intelligence to classic and new software development challenges. We identify the new challenges that the software engineering community has to address in the coming years to successfully apply artificial intelligence in software engineering, and we share our research roadmap toward the effective use of artificial intelligence in the software engineering profession, while still protecting fundamental human values. We spotlight three main areas that challenge the research in software engineering: the use of generative artificial intelligence and large language models for engineering large software systems, the need of large and unbiased datasets and benchmarks for training and evaluating deep learning and large language models for software engineering, and the need of a new code of digital ethics to apply artificial intelligence in software engineering.
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Autonomous chemical research with large language models
Abstract Transformer-based large language models are making significant strides in various fields, such as natural language processing1–5, biology6,7, chemistry8–10and computer programming11,12. Here, we show the development and capabilities of Coscientist, an artificial intelligence system driven by GPT-4 that autonomously designs, plans and performs complex experiments by incorporating large language models empowered by tools such as internet and documentation search, code execution and experimental automation. Coscientist showcases its potential for accelerating research across six diverse tasks, including the successful reaction optimization of palladium-catalysed cross-couplings, while exhibiting advanced capabilities for (semi-)autonomous experimental design and execution. Our findings demonstrate the versatility, efficacy and explainability of artificial intelligence systems like Coscientist in advancing research.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2202693
- PAR ID:
- 10490898
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Nature
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nature
- Volume:
- 624
- Issue:
- 7992
- ISSN:
- 0028-0836
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 570 to 578
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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