SE Radio 693: Mark Williamson on AI-Assisted Debugging

In this episode of Software Engineering Radio, Priyanka Raghavan interviews Mark Williamson, CTO of Undo, about the use of AI for debugging. They discuss debugging in a professional software engineering context, differentiating it from simply fixing bugs, and explore how AI can assist in debugging, particularly for beginners and experienced developers. The conversation covers using LLMs for sifting through data and automating tasks, the potential of AI as a debugging assistant by analyzing error messages and generating test cases, and the role of AI in debugging strategies, including kernel-level bugs. They also delve into specific tools like ChatDBG and time travel debugging, and address concerns about autonomous agents introducing regressions or masking root causes, emphasizing the need for human oversight and code review.