Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Unfortunately, so is a decent parlor trick. The whole game with AI is figuring out which one you're actually looking at.
Generative AI is changing the programming landscape, which is exciting, confusing, useful, over-hyped, and occasionally just plain scary. For C++ programmers, that mix gets even more interesting because our mistakes are rarely decorative. This talk explores what C++ developers actually need to know about AI: the technical risks, the broader human concerns, and the practical techniques that make these tools more helpful and less hazardous.
We will cover correctness and some issues that are particularly important for C++ code, as well as the bigger questions around trust, skill atrophy, hype, and whether faster code generation is really the same thing as better software. The tone will be practical and interactive, with time for Q&A, discussion, and maybe an impromptu panel if the room has opinions (and for a C++ Now audience, I need to be careful or I may not get to speak past the introduction).
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Jody Hagins started using C++ back in the mid 1980s, with cfront. In 1993, he enjoyed writing enough C++ support code to enable writing loadable unix device drivers in C++. Since then, he has been applying C++ to various problems within the fintech space.