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.
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.
