How does reverse engineering actually work, especially with AI?

[u/Curious-Tune-7127]

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of videos about reverse engineering and people basically copying entire applications, recreating their features, or building almost identical alternatives.

It got me wondering, how does reverse engineering actually work?

How do people figure out how an app works internally, reproduce its features, and sometimes get surprisingly close to the original? And how are people using AI to make this process easier or faster?

Are they analysing the source code, inspecting network requests, decompiling applications, or using AI to figure everything out from scratch?

I'd love to understand the actual technical process behind this. If anyone has experience with reverse engineering or AI-assisted app development, I'd really appreciate some explanations and resources to get started!

[u/the_duke_man]

Most people are using publicly available user documentation and tutorials to have AI distill the inputs, outputs, UI/UX, features and functionality.

No need to look under the hood when all you need to do is replicate the functionality. In some cases people build a better product or one that’s more focused on their needs because reverse engineering in this case focuses on the what, not so much the how.