Generative AI has brought significant upheaval and uncertainty to how software is developed—and those of us who study software developers face substantial new challenges and questions of our own. When AI-based developer tools evolve every few months, how can we produce research that endures? What can human-centered academics hope to contribute when the big players are relatively token rich? And why write papers at all when generative AI can both synthesize and peer review them?

As someone who has worked on both human-centered and AI-centered problems, in industry and academia alike, I’ll explore these urgent questions facing our community.