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AI CHATBOTS WERE TASKED TO RUN A TECH COMPANY. THEY BUILT SOFTWARE IN UNDER 7
MINUTES — FOR LESS THAN $1.

Aaron Mok
Sep 11, 2023, 11:01 AM GMT+2
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A screenshot of the AI bots working for the hypothetical tech company ChatDev.
Courtesy of researcher Chen Qian.

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 * Researchers in a new study tasked an AI-powered tech company with developing
   70 different programs.
 * They found AI could develop software in under seven minutes for less than $1
   in costs, on average.
 * AI bots were assigned roles and were able to talk, make logical decisions,
   and troubleshoot bugs. 

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Artificial-intelligence chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT can operate a software
company in a quick, cost-effective manner with minimal human intervention, a new
study indicates.

The findings came after researchers published another study in which AI agents
powered by large language models were able to run a virtual town on their own.

In the recent paper, a team of researchers from Brown University and multiple
Chinese universities conducted an experiment to see whether AI bots powered by a
version of ChatGPT's 3.5 model could complete the software-development process
without prior training.

To test this, researchers created a hypothetical software-development company
named ChatDev. Based on the waterfall model — a sequential approach to creating
software — the company was broken down into four stages in chronological order:
designing, coding, testing, and documenting.

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From there, researchers assigned AI bots specific roles by prompting each one
with "vital details" that described the "designated task and roles,
communication protocols, termination criteria, and constraints."

Once the researchers gave the AI bots their roles, each bot was allocated to its
respective stages. The "CEO" and "CTO" of ChatDev, for instance, worked in the
"designing" stage, and the "programmer" and "art designer" performed in the
"coding" stage.

During each stage, the AI workers chatted with one another with minimal human
input to complete specific parts of the software-development process — from
deciding which programming language to use to identifying bugs in the code —
until the software was complete.

The researchers ran the experiment across different software scenarios and
applied a series of analyses to them to see how long it took ChatDev to complete
each type of software and how much each one would cost.

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Researchers, for example, tasked ChatDev to "design a basic Gomoku game," an
abstract strategy board game also known as "Five in a Row."

At the designing stage, the CEO asked the CTO to "propose a concrete programming
language" that would "satisfy the new user's demand," to which the CTO responded
with Python. In turn, the CEO said, "Great!" and explained that the programming
language's "simplicity and readability make it a popular choice for beginners
and experienced developers alike."

After the CTO replied with, "Let's get started," ChatDev moved on to the coding
stage, where the CTO asked the programmer to write a file, followed by the
programmer asking the designer to give the software a "beautiful graphical user
interface." The chat chain was repeated at each stage until the software was
developed.

After assigning ChatDev 70 tasks, the study found the AI-powered company was
able to complete the full software-development process "in under seven minutes
at a cost of less than one dollar," on average — all while identifying and
troubleshooting "potential vulnerabilities" through its "memory" and
"self-reflection" capabilities.

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The paper said about 86.66% of the generated software systems were "executed
flawlessly."

"Our experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of
the automated software development process driven by CHATDEV," the researchers
wrote in the paper.

The researchers didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider
before publication.

The study's findings indicate one of the many ways powerful generative-AI
technologies such as ChatGPT can perform specific job functions. Since the AI
chatbot came out in November, workers across industries have used it on the job
to save time and boost productivity.

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Coders, in particular, may find generative-AI tools beneficial to their personal
and professional lives. Daniel Dippold, a coder in Berlin, used ChatGPT to
develop a program that helped him find an apartment, and Amazon employees were
found to use ChatGPT for software development.

The study wasn't perfect, however: Researchers identified limitations, such as
errors and biases in the language models, that could cause issues in the
creation of software. Still, the researchers said the findings "may potentially
help junior programmers or engineers in the real world" down the line.

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WATCH: WHAT IS CHATGPT, AND SHOULD WE BE AFRAID OF AI CHATBOTS?


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