Technology is always exciting, and this week was no exception. There are new products, developer activity, and tool innovations to talk about! Please add your comments in the discussion area.
OpenAI releases a new AI tool
OpenAI announced the release of GPT-4, the next AI language model that powers ChatGPT. This tool can take both text and image input, although it only delivers text replies. OpenAI states that GPT-4 has better advanced reasoning capabilities, better accuracy, and more safety than ChatGPT.
This new tool is available through ChatGPT Plus, which is OpenAI's subscription service.
Speaking of ChatGPT, humans are still better hackers (for now)
In a new study released by HoxHunt this week, they compared win rates on simulated phishing attacks between human engineers and ChatGPT-generated efforts. HoxHunt found that humans outperformed AI by 45%. Oh, don't get feeling too superior... while we still have an advantage, HoxHunt points out that the pace of development in this technology continues to grow rapidly.
Looking at the previous article, OpenAI says GPT-4 is "82% less likely to respond to requests for disallowed content." Given that humans will continue to try to push the limits on how to use these AI language models, trying to stay ahead in security seems to be a real challenge. However, while AI can pull a lot of information together quickly, humans have that spark of creativity and ingenuity. Will humans always be better hackers than AI?
Hackers use Kubernetes clusters for illicit crypto mining
While AI has some catching up to do, those human hackers are certainly active! CrowdStrike reported that they discovered a cryptojacking campaign against the Dero cryptocurrency where non-standard ports were targeted on Kubernetes clusters. The attackers found vulnerable ports that did not have secure authentication. They did not attack other resources or make any attempt to disrupt the operation of the cluster. Instead, they used it to mine Dero.
Since it didn't disrupt other resources, I can see how this kind of resource exploitation can go unnoticed. This certainly builds the case for observability!
MIT students announce a Python compiler
MIT students announced their efforts to build a Python compiler, which improved the performance of their applications by up to 100 times faster than Python by itself. While the students developed their compiler for genomics, they have also applied it to quantitative finance and other areas that use large data sets.
Their compiling software, called Codon, is available through their repo on GitHub.
With Python being an easy language to learn and use, performance innovations like this can bring big-data computing to a wider pool of developers. For you developers out there, what other innovations would you like to see?
Illinois proposal would ban video conferencing while driving
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias submitted a proposal to ban the use of video conferencing while driving. The bill makes it illegal to use a device to watch or participate in video conferencing, stream videos, and even social media. However, audio calls on hands-free devices won't be affected.
With recent announcements about Zoom integration in Teslas, it seems that consumer demand and the law might get into conflict. How do you think this might play out?
Good news for Devvie
Sky News reports that the University of Cambridge completed a study that shows that when people interacted with robots, they had a greater connection to toy-like robots than to more humanoid robots. Devvie thinks that's great!
