programming Archives

GitLab: Developers view AI as ‘essential’ despite concerns

A survey by GitLab has shed light on the views of developers on the landscape of AI in software development.

The report, titled ‘The State of AI in Software Development,’ presents insights from over 1,000 global senior technology executives, developers, and security and operations professionals.

The report reveals a complex relationship between enthusiasm for AI adoption and concerns about data privacy, intellectual property, and security.

“Enterprises...

6 September 2023 | Applications

GitHub Code Brushes uses ML to update code ‘like painting with Photoshop’

GitHub Next has unveiled a project called Code Brushes which uses machine learning to update code “like painting with Photoshop”.

Using the feature, developers can “brush” over their code to see it update in real-time.

Several different brushes are included to achieve various aims. For example, one brush makes code more readable—especially important when coding as part of a team or contributing to open-source projects.

Here are the other included...

16 January 2023 | Applications

Developers using AI help often produce buggier code

A study by Stanford University computer scientists has found that developers using AI-powered assistants often produce buggier code.

The paper, titled ‘Do Users Write More Insecure Code with AI Assistants?’, examines developers’ use of AI coding assistants like the controversial GitHub Copilot.

“Participants with access to an AI assistant often produced more security vulnerabilities than those without access, with particularly significant results for string...

21 December 2022 | Applications

DeepMind AlphaCode rivals the abilities of human programmers

DeepMind’s AI coder AlphaCode has proven capable of rivalling the abilities of a standard human programmer.

The company selected 10 contests that were hosted on Codeforces – a programming competition platform with thousands of participants – to evaluate the performance of AlphaCode.

Below is an example of a problem #AlphaCode can successfully solve, using the exact information seen on @codeforces, & the program that #AlphaCode writes.By...

3 February 2022 | Artificial Intelligence

GitHub releases an AI-powered copilot to help improve code

GitHub is helping developers to speed up and clean up their code with a new AI-powered tool that it calls Copilot.

GitHub Copilot uses an AI system from OpenAI known as OpenAI Codex. The system claims to have a broad knowledge of how people use code and claims to be “significantly more capable than GPT-3” in generating code.

By drawing context from the code that a developer is working on, the system is able to suggest entire lines or...

30 June 2021 | Artificial Intelligence

IBM’s Project CodeNet wants to teach AI how to code

IBM has announced Project CodeNet, a large dataset that aims to help teach AI how to understand and even write code.

Project CodeNet was announced at IBM’s Think conference this week and claims to be the largest open-source dataset for code (approximately 10 times the size of the closest.)

CodeNet features 500 million lines of code, 14 million examples, and spans 55 programming languages including Python, C++, Java, Go, COBOL, Pascal, and more.

Projects such...

11 May 2021 | Enterprise

Eggplant launches AI-powered software testing in the cloud

Automation specialists Eggplant have launched a new AI-powered software testing platform.

The cloud-based solution aims to help accelerate the delivery of software in a rapidly-changing world while maintaining a high bar of quality.

Gareth Smith, CTO of Eggplant, said:

“The launch of our cloud platform is a significant milestone in our mission to rid the world of bad software. In our new normal, delivering speed and agility at scale has never been more...

6 October 2020 | Enterprise

Jack Dorsey tells Andrew Yang that AI is ‘coming for programming jobs’

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently told former 2020 US presidential candidate Andrew Yang that AI "is coming for programming jobs".

There is still fierce debate about the impact that artificial intelligence will have on jobs. Some believe that AI will replace many jobs and lead to the requirement of a Universal Basic Income (UBI), while others claim it will primarily offer assistance to help workers be more productive.

Dorsey is a respected technologist with a deep...