That's a great question that we haven't really talked about. The part of the AI codegen workflow that prompted this (no pun intended) is that it forces you to say/type aloud all your incremental intentions. It's the first time a tool has access to what was often previously inner monologue for most developers. But I know several developers who think aloud even without using AI (rubber ducking). But beyond just thinking aloud, using an AI code generator like Cursor Agent lets you express intent aloud and then easily change your mind (e.g. abandoning a code branch or using Cursor checkpoints)... the informal intent is right there next to the code for the first time.
Yes, comments could be that in theory. But in 70 years, I still don't think we've got a single fully commented codebase that includes fully documented product and technical intent.
Inferring intent is _really_ interesting. Though of course we have many examples where the code does not accurately express the intent (thank you, bugs). But could we bootstrap an intent store from existing code and then allow developers to validate and augment it with a more verbose process going forward? I think so.