Beyond Vibe Coding - Leveraging Foundation Models to Infer Intent

Explore how foundation models can revolutionize software requirements engineering by moving beyond superficial "vibe coding" to truly understanding user intent in this 32-minute conference talk from the Linux Foundation. Examine why requirements engineering serves as the primary bottleneck in software development and learn how aligning software with genuine user needs begins with comprehending underlying intent. Discover the critical distinction between goals, requirements, and the hidden rationale that supports them, while understanding how foundation models can leverage Theory of Mind, iterative refinement, and dialog context to bridge ambiguity gaps. Investigate conversational interfaces designed for requirement elicitation that proactively clarify needs, resolve contradictions, and prevent premature solution jumping. Learn evaluation frameworks for assessing intent quality through rubrics measuring accuracy, relevance, completeness, realizability, and collaboration support. Review real-world evidence demonstrating how foundation model-inferred requirements deliver superior grounding and user satisfaction compared to baseline approaches. Address known challenges including sycophancy, hallucination, and computational costs while exploring future directions in requirements engineering through reasoning-augmented models, multi-modal inputs, and non-chat interfaces. Understand why foundation models must evolve beyond mere code generation to comprehend the fundamental purpose behind software creation.