Rethinking Software Engineering in the Foundation Model Era: From Task-Driven AI Copilots to Goal-Driven AI Pair Programmers

Understand

The advent of Foundation Models (FMs) and AI-powered copilots has transformed the landscape of software development, offering unprecedented code completion capabilities and enhancing developer productivity.

• However, the current task-driven nature of these copilots falls short in addressing the broader goals and complexities inherent in software engineering (SE).
• In this paper, we propose a paradigm shift towards goal-driven AI-powered pair programmers that collaborate with human developers in a more holistic and context-aware manner.
• We envision AI pair programmers that are goal-driven, human partners, SE-aware, and self-learning.