The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), headquartered in Melbourne, has “formally sanctioned” a team to explore the possible use of generative AI for code testing. As part of the investigation, engineers will also explore other potential use cases for the technology.
Generative AI, which utilises large language models to generate new and unique content based on patterns found in training data, has become ever-more prevalent in recent months, since the launch of Microsoft artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool.
Commenting on the news, ANZ chief technology officer Tim Hogarth [pictured] said: “We’ve formally sanctioned one team in ANZ to explore generative AI for software engineering to improve our testing. Writing test cases – normally also written in code – is an important, if somewhat tiresome, task”. He continued: “Generative AI is really powerful at reading code and proposing the complete test case to properly exercise that code” … “This will dramatically improve unit testing and, I think, give us a step change in identifying bugs and errors earlier in the development process.”
[Image Source: ANZ Banking Group]
