Foundation Models (FM) like GPT-4 have given rise to FMware, FM-powered applications, which represent a new generation of software that is developed with new roles, assets, and paradigms. FMware has been widely adopted in both software engineering (SE) research (e.g., test generation) and industrial products (e.g., GitHub copilot), despite the numerous challenges introduced by the stochastic nature of FMs. Such challenges jeopardize the quality and trustworthiness of FMware. In our technical brief, we will present the latest research and industrial practices in engineering FMware, and discuss the SE challenges and opportunities facing both researchers and practitioners in the FMware era.

The brief is unique in that it is presented from an SE point of view, not an AI point-of-view ensuring that attendees are not bogged into complex mathematical and AI details unless they are essential for contextualizing the SE challenges and opportunities.