Software engineering researchers and practitioners have pursued manners to reduce the amount of time and effort required to develop code and increase productivity since the emergence of the discipline. Generative language models are just another step in this journey, but it will probably not be the last one. In this chapter, we propose DAnTE, a Degree of Automation Taxonomy for software Engineering, describing several levels of automation based on the idiosyncrasies of the field. Based on the taxonomy, we evaluated several tools used in the past and in the present for software engineering practices. Then, we give particular attention to AI-based tools, including generative language models, discussing how they are located within the proposed taxonomy, and reasoning about possible limitations they currently have. Based on this analysis, we discuss what novel tools could emerge in the middle and long term.

翻译：软件工程领域的研究者和从业者自该学科诞生以来，始终致力于探索减少代码开发时间与工作量、提升生产效率的方法。生成式语言模型只是这一探索历程的又一阶段性成果，但很可能并非终点。本章提出DAnTE——面向软件工程的自动化程度分类体系，基于该领域特性描述了多个自动化层级。借助该分类体系，我们对软件工程实践中过去与现在使用的若干工具进行了评估。随后，我们重点关注基于人工智能的工具（包括生成式语言模型），论述其在该分类体系中的定位，并思考其当前可能存在的局限性。基于上述分析，我们进一步探讨了中长期内可能出现的新型工具。