What Kent Beck thinks about LLMs

@kent-beck · 38 positions · On ppll ↗

Creator of extreme programming and test-driven development, an original signatory of the Agile Manifesto, and the author of Test-Driven Development: By Example and Tidy First?

Kent Beck did not write this page.

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1 dated position, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Kent Beck has said — not written or endorsed by them.

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1. 1 Jul 2026

   Our readingPrograms exist to communicate intent to other people and now to models as well, and we do not understand at all how to communicate effectively to models.

   Their wordspart of the goal of programs is to communicate intent to other human beings and now to models as well which which is a much more open-ended problem. We understand a lot more about how to communicate to other human beings whether we apply that understanding or not. We don't understand at all how to communicate effectively to models

   ↗How Kent Beck shapes the software engineering industryyoutube.com 5th of 28 in this recording