Generative artificial intelligence (AI) - a technology that creates text, code and images on request - is increasingly used to write software code. Code follows strict rules, so AI handles it well. Now people are trying to use it to recreate paid programs.
The method is called reverse engineering: a program is broken down into its component parts and used to write code that replicates its functions. This differs from "vibe coding", where a person simply describes the desired behavior of a program to AI and waits for the result. For large and complex products, reverse engineering is more effective.
In recent weeks, one programmer used AI to create essentially free versions of Microsoft Office and Adobe programs (including Photoshop). And a tool called Reverse Engineer Anything, available to anyone, has gone viral among developers.
Enthusiasts speak of a return to the early days of the internet, when programs were free and could be modified to suit oneself. At that time, much software was distributed with open source code: anyone could download it and improve it. But at the end of 1998, the United States passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) - a copyright law for the digital age that prohibited circumventing technical protections that prevent interference with code. After that, paid programs that cannot be modified became the norm, while free and open ones remained the domain of technically savvy people.
Reverse engineering may not violate the DMCA, since it does not crack protective locks, although legal disputes are not ruled out. However, the new approach has weak points. There are already reports of strange errors in programs created this way, and finding them will be difficult if the code was written by AI rather than a human. In addition, if everyone modifies their own copy of Word, file compatibility may break: a file opened in a "free" version may not open in the official Microsoft program.
Another difference from the early internet is the role of data. Even if Photoshop is recreated, it will not have the dataset on which Adobe's proprietary AI tools run. Similarly, reverse engineering Facebook will not provide access to the behavioral data that powers its advertising.
According to the article's author, reverse engineering is unlikely to return the internet to former times, but it may mark the beginning of an era when traditional ways of making money from software stop working. What happens next is unclear. One can only hope that the balance of power between consumers and software creators will be somewhat restored.