497: Turning Machine Code into C with AI

In this episode James and Frank dive into the practical realities of using AI in everyday development—arguing that AI shines in brownfield (existing) code because it respects your architecture, while greenfield work rewards iterative prompting. They unpack model quirks: context-window limits, hallucinations, and why trying different models matters. The heart of the show is Frank’s nerdy delight: feeding a 64KB EEPROM through a disassembler and having Sonnet decompile it into readable C, exposing a PID autopilot and hardware checks—proof that AI can accelerate reverse engineering and embedded work. Along the way they share hands-on tips (trim and clean context, use disassembly first, tweak prompts), and fun examples of AI-generated icons and AppleScript. A must-listen for devs curious how AI can supercharge real projects.

You can listen to 497: Turning Machine Code into C with AI online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

497: Turning Machine Code into C with AI is an episode from Merge Conflict by soundbite.fm.

This episode is 51:09 long.

This episode was published on Jan 12, 2026.

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