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[ARTICLE · art-126036] src=news.ycombinator.com ↗ pub= topic=artificial-intelligence verified=true sentiment=· neutral

Why isn't decompilation a solved problem in the AI era?

A Hacker News submission asks why AI-based decompilation remains unsolved despite the availability of thousands of source-executable pairs for training and the compiler being a parameter AI can identify and weight. The post asks what the state of the art is in AI decompilation and which tools are available today, noting it should be easier when an executable can be run and inspected at runtime. The submission has 2 points and 0 comments.

by read1 min views1 publishedSep 10, 2026

There are thousands of pairs of source-executable pairs that could be used for training, and the compiler is a parameter that AI can easily identify and account for as a heavily weighted factor.

So why isn't there (or maybe there is and I don't know about it) an AI based decompiler that can take almost any machine code, and transform it into highly readable source code (complete with meaningful guesses for variable names and comments)? It seems like it should be even easier when the executable could be run and inspected at runtime by the AI model.

What is the state of the art with AI decompilation, and are there tools I can play with today?

Comments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49646640](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49646640)

Points: 2

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