Generative AI for Software Development: A Family of Studies on Code Generation

The rapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI) offer multiple opportunities for its application in various domains, including software engineering (SE). This chapter explores the benefits and challenges of utilizing generative AI for different activities in the software development cycle that involve code generation. We review different approaches leveraging generative AI, either independently or in combination with traditional SE techniques, to complete a diverse set of tasks including feature implementation, generating test cases, and repairing programs. Additionally, we discuss the potential pitfalls of using generative AI to perform such SE tasks, as well as the quality of the code generated by these models. Finally, we explore research opportunities in harnessing generative AI, with a particular emphasis on tasks that require code generation.