Software engineering

“Engineers are becoming sorcerers” | The future of software development with OpenAI's Sherwin Wu

“Engineers are becoming sorcerers” | The future of software development with OpenAI's Sherwin Wu

Sherwin Wu, head of engineering for OpenAI’s API platform, discusses the radical transformation of software engineering. He shares how 95% of OpenAI engineers use Codex to manage fleets of AI agents, cutting code review times from 15 to 3 minutes. Wu explores the widening productivity gap, the changing role of managers in an AI-first world, and why "models will eat your scaffolding for breakfast", urging developers to build for where AI is going, not where it is today.

OpenAI Town Hall with Sam Altman

OpenAI Town Hall with Sam Altman

Sam Altman discusses the future of AI, covering the evolution of software engineering, the challenges for AI startups, the roadmap for model capabilities and costs, and the broader societal impacts on economics, security, and education.

Automating Large Scale Refactors with Parallel Agents - Robert Brennan, AllHands

Automating Large Scale Refactors with Parallel Agents - Robert Brennan, AllHands

A deep dive into orchestrating swarms of AI agents for large-scale code refactoring. Learn practical workflows, task decomposition strategies, and context-sharing patterns, demonstrated with a real-world case study on migrating a large codebase.

AI Code Generation: Wins, Fails and the Future

AI Code Generation: Wins, Fails and the Future

A panel of experts discusses the future of AI in software engineering, focusing on the "barbell effect" where AI excels at hyper-complex tasks but fails at simple ones. The conversation explores whether performance is driven by the model or the agent orchestration, the evolving role of the engineer as an architect, and the significant challenges open-source tools face against vertically integrated proprietary systems, particularly the high cost of inference.

Developer Experience in the Age of AI Coding Agents – Max Kanat Alexander, Capitol One

Developer Experience in the Age of AI Coding Agents – Max Kanat Alexander, Capitol One

Max Kanat-Alexander explores the rapid changes in software engineering driven by AI and identifies 'no-regrets investments' that will benefit development teams regardless of the future. He argues that by focusing on foundational developer experience principles—such as standardizing tools, improving validation, structuring code for testability, and refining the code review process—organizations can create a virtuous cycle of productivity for both human developers and their AI agent counterparts.

Making Codebases Agent Ready – Eno Reyes, Factory AI

Making Codebases Agent Ready – Eno Reyes, Factory AI

The effectiveness of AI coding agents is not limited by model quality, but by "Agent Readiness"—the state of your development environment. This talk explains why agents fail on codebases with flaky tests, low validation, and tribal knowledge. It introduces a framework for improving your environment's readiness through rigorous verification, automated validation, and a shift to specification-driven development, arguing this is the key to unlocking 5-7x productivity gains and enabling true software engineering autonomy.