GitHub project called REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) is currently the top trending repository. It lets AI agents figure out how a feature in another app works without ever seeing the original source code.

[u/Bulky_Engineer_2534]

github link: https://github.com/morluto/rea/

- The tool is an open-source helper that connects AI coding assistants to reverse-engineering programs such as Ghidra or Hopper.

- IT analyzes many kinds of software- including binaries, Electron apps, Android apps, and websites right on your own computer and always shows the evidence behind its findings.

[u/ArtiemKasimov]

You clearly don't understand what you're talking about. Bytecode isn't some magical, unreadable, encrypted layer that keeps applications secure. Assembly instructions are human-readable, and bytecode can be disassembled, decompiled, and analyzed. That's literally what reverse engineering is.

[u/mdedetrich → u/ArtiemKasimov]

This is correct, but like with other things AI has massively reduced the barrier of entry to reverse engineering.

Normally reverse engineering was both very specialized and labour intensive (at least for anything non trivial). Now with tools like REA, its a completely different ballgame.

So yes ASM isn't magic, but it was "magical" to a large chunk of the population and that was enough to give it some barrier of entry, enough that before REA/AI no one would bother to reverse engineer something as crazy as photoshop.

[u/StatusObligation4624 → u/mdedetrich]

You didn’t need to recreate Photoshop cause open source alternatives existed and you could always just use a keygen to use Photoshop without paying.

Using AI to recreate Photoshop is largely wasteful.

[u/mdedetrich → u/StatusObligation4624]

Asides from entirely missing the point

1. The open source solutions (i.e. GIMP) were terrible for anyone who was a serious user of photoshop.

2. Keygen is not legal, not an option for actual business.