What the Dev?

In this episode, Dave speaks with Jean-Baptiste Tristan, senior principal scientist at AWS, about how automated reasoning can help verify software correctness and enforce governance guardrails for autonomous AI agents. Jean-Baptiste described automated reasoning as computer science and mathematical logic implemented through algorithms and software. Unlike data-driven AI that generalizes through induction or transduction, it makes inferences through deduction using axioms and rules. Automated ...

Dave talks with Justin Collier, Vice President of Product Management at SmartBear, about the need for AI testing to mature, to keep pace with AI-generated code. About 69% of surveyed U.S. software experts said AI writes or accelerates at least 41% of their code, while only about 46% validate specifications before AI generates code. Code coverage remains important, but it is not sufficient by itself. Teams should identify critical tests early and target tests to changed code and release ...

In this episode, Dave speaks with Christian Bremeau, founder and CEO of Meta Integration as a nearly 30-year-old metadata technology provider whose components support lineage and metadata harvesting across data integration, catalog, modeling, and BI products. Version 12 is now generally available after nearly two years of development and about six months of pre-release deployment. It includes multiple MCP servers, AI-assisted metadata search and question-answering, and the MetaKarta product b...

Dave discusses npm version 12’s decision to disable lifecycle scripts by default to improve security while potentially shifting malicious-package execution from installation time to runtime. Joining him is Darren Meyer , security leader at Checkmarx. Darren explained that lifecycle scripts, including post-install scripts, have been a common way for attackers to execute malicious code in development environments. With scripts disabled by default, attackers may move deployment and infecti...

Dave discusses the evolution of quality assurance in an AI-driven development life cycle with Wei Wei Wu, CEO of Momentic. Wei Wei argues that traditional test scripts like Selenium and Playwright are becoming obsolete as AI agents increasingly write code. Instead, he proposes a future where independent agents act as verifiers to close the feedback loop autonomously. Wei Wei suggests the role of QA is shifting toward "context engineering," where humans provide business logic and edge ca...