The report makes a compelling case for the adoption of memory-safe programming languages.

This new focus builds on the goal of restoring cybersecurity responsibility and restructuring incentives in favor of long-term cybersecurity investments. Memory-safe programming languages were also included as a goal of the Open Source Software Security Initiative (OS3I), which recently published a new report.

When using a memory-safe programming language such as Rust, Go, Java, Swift, and Python, developers cannot create code that causes a memory error because the language includes specific properties such as memory safety. When developers write code in languages that are not memory safe, such as C and C++, they may inadvertently write code that can cause memory access errors. Instead of the errors being caught at compile time and runtime, as with memory-safe languages, they end up in the final version and cause security problems, writes Jennifer Gregory, an author on cybersecurity topics.

Gregory adds that choosing a memory-safe language significantly reduces or completely eliminates memory-related vulnerabilities. In addition to improved security, memory-safe languages also reduce crashes and allow developers to increase productivity because they don’t need to focus on memory management issues.

The report focuses on getting organizations to focus on two specific areas related to memory-safe languages. In addition, the government wants to focus on creating partnerships with the technical community, especially engineers and developers, to collaborate on making this key change happen.

Although the use of memory-safe languages is recommended, the transition to them is challenging. Many software programs and libraries are based on inappropriate memory protection languages, and rewriting the entire database is often impossible. Starting a new project with a safe programming language represents the easiest way to transition.

Organizations can reduce attacks by rewriting only the critical functions and libraries that are most vulnerable to memory-related errors. Suitable languages such as Rust and Swift are interoperable with C and C++, making this transition easier. However, making the transition requires adequate developer resources. Organizations should start by assessing their existing memory safety language experts and provide training for both current and new developers in this area.

Among survey respondents, those between the ages of 55 and 64 were the most concerned (87%).

Surprising results indicate that even members of Generation Z experience a dose of worry when brands turnover data online. 82% of consumers between the ages of 18-24 said they are concerned about the way brands collect information about them.

Now that cookie-free third-party marketing is almost here, a new research report released today shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans don’t trust a single brand when it comes to protecting their privacy.

Consumers still refrain from sharing data online

The Zero-Party Data Revolution report reveals that eight in ten (85%) consumers opt out of being added to a company’s mailing list at least in some cases, and 58% say it’s common for them to decline such offers in most cases.

Survey data also shows that almost a third of users (31%) would reject cookies on websites if asked.

Users who reject cookies are most likely to do so because they don’t want to be inundated with ads afterwards, and because they don’t trust the website in question with their data (both 36%).

At the same time, 27% of respondents fear that hackers will steal their data.

Again surprisingly, 52% of Generation Z members indicated that they do not trust websites to keep their data private.

Likelihood to opt-out of first-party cookies by website type:

• Social media websites: 47%
• Travel websites: 42%
• Food and beverage websites: 40%
• Financial services and retail websites: Both at 39%

If you take into account the fact that zero-country data involves explicitly requesting information from users, this is done through interactive data collection methods.

Attest attempted to discover which methods users preferred most, finding that:

Interactive surveys topped the poll: 47% of respondents said interactive surveys were their preferred way for a brand to collect data about them, followed by loyalty cards (i.e. purchase history), and 27% liked online forms. Cookies and chat services/chatbots to talk to customers are at the bottom of preferences (18% each).

Popular with all groups: Consumers who need information to benefit from it:Consumer surveys are the most popular method of data collection across all age groups: 66% of consumers aged 18-24 say they prefer them, as do 41% of those aged 55-64.

The Zero-Party Data Revolution report surveyed 1,500 nationally representative U.S. consumers, and the survey coincides with the dropping of third-party cookies in Google Chrome this year, marking one of the biggest changes in digital advertising since the invention of cookies in 1992.

Attest’s report aims to enable marketers to understand why this change represents a transformative chance to use an alternative data source – zero-party data – to continue to reach target audiences, regain trust and create ads that are compelling, not invasive.

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The tech giant said it would lay off hundreds of employees in its voice assistant unit, and eliminate hundreds of positions from the hardware team responsible for Pixel, Nest and Fitbit. The augmented reality (AR) team is also affected, with the majority of people in it to be laid off.

The company has come out with the opinion that such extreme actions are necessary and are part of the organizational changes.

“To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, and to align their resources to their biggest product priorities. Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

Alphabet’s employee union said in an X that the layoffs were “unnecessary” and that the company could not “continue to fire colleagues” while making billions.

Google has recently downsized its AR hardware team and opted for collaboration with other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), according to an initial report from 9to5Google. Additionally, there is a shift towards consolidating Google’s hardware engineering efforts into a unified core team, streamlining operations previously spread across Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest.

Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman are confirmed to be departing, as acknowledged by Google to TechCrunch. Notably, James Park played a crucial role in the introduction of the new Pixel Watch series of smartwatches within Google’s hardware portfolio.

In 2019, Google announced the acquisition of Fitbit for $2.1 billion, a process that underwent a two-year regulatory approval before finalizing in 2021. Since then, Google has integrated Fitbit products into its own offerings, exemplified by prompting Fitbit users to transition to Google accounts last year.

Simultaneously, the company made changes in its workforce, including personnel from the Google Assistant team, as reported by Semafor.

This latest company-wide layoff follows a larger workforce reduction of approximately 12,000 roles, or 6% of its employees, in January 2023.

According to internal company documents cited by The Verge, ByteDance has extensively utilized OpenAI’s application programming interface (API) throughout various stages of its AI product development. The ties between ByteDance and the Chinese government have already drawn considerable attention, leading to heightened federal scrutiny of TikTok’s operations in the United States.

ByteDance’s internal initiative, labeled “Project Seed,” has been a high-priority and secretive endeavor aimed at constructing its own large-language model—an AI tool trained on vast amounts of internet data. The report indicates that ByteDance not only employed OpenAI’s “GPT” for training its model but also for evaluating the ongoing development of its ambitious project.

“All API customers must adhere to our usage policies to ensure that our technology is used for good. While ByteDance’s use of our API was minimal, we have suspended their account while we further investigate”, said OpenAI spokesperson.

“If we discover that their usage doesn’t follow these policies, we will ask them to make necessary changes or terminate their account,” the spokesperson added.

ByteDance reportedly buys its access to OpenAI’s tools through Microsoft, the AI firm’s key investor and partner. Microsoft has similar terms of service.

“The developer skills gap has been well-documented, but with so many tech companies forced into making redundancies across the business, the requirement for developer talent is as urgent as ever,” said JuhaPekka Niemi, senior vice president of product management at Qt Group.

“Despite an uncertain economic market, companies are still looking for – and struggling to recruit – developer talent”, he continued.

The company clarified that numerous redundancies were documented in 2023, attributing many layoffs to ongoing re-prioritization initiatives. As an illustration, a technology company, despite recording 27,410 redundancies, retained 5,437 developer positions on its website as of November 15.

The report asserts that to address the skills gap, companies must “enhance their design and development processes and enhance efficiency.” Additionally, Qt Group examined the impact of AI, noting that despite the current enthusiasm for AI, the demand for developers remains high due to their crucial role in fostering innovation and creativity.

The figure shed more light on the relationship between two of the world’s largest technology companies, which have come under antitrust scrutiny in the past few years.

The Justice Department accuses Google of using its vast resources to maintain market dominance by paying companies like Apple, whose iPhone, iPad and Mac devices have billions of users combined, to be the default search engine on Safari. In 2021, Google allegedly paid Apple “about $18 billion” to be the default search engine in Safari, a New York Times report reveals.

Last week, Google and Apple had raised objections making details of their arrangement public, Bloomberg noted. Google said that making more details public “would unreasonably undermine Google’s competitive standing in relation to both competitors and other counterparties” in a court filing.

It’s not clear how much ad revenue Google generates from Safari, but it’s safe to assume that 36 percent of that number would likely be tens of billions of dollars. In 2022, Google’s total revenue was $279.8 billion, and a majority of it came from advertising.

As per the White House’s official statement, this EO sets forth groundbreaking measures to enhance the safety and security of AI technology, safeguard the privacy of American citizens, foster fairness and civil rights, advocate for the interests of consumers and workers, encourage innovation and healthy competition, and bolster the United States’ global leadership in this pivotal field.

The Executive Order details a comprehensive framework that outlines the establishment of new standards and best practices intended to guarantee the safety and security of AI, which includes:

• Requiring developers of AI systems to share safety test results with the government
• Establishing standards, tools, and tests to ensure safety, security, and trustworthiness of AI systems
• Making new standards for biological synthesis screening to prevent AI from being used to create dangerous biological materials
• Creating guidance and best practices for detecting AI-generated content
• Setting up a security program to develop tools that find and fix vulnerabilities using AI
• Developing a National Security Memorandum to guide the direction of further actions on AI and security

Within the EO, President Biden has taken a proactive stance in safeguarding the privacy of American citizens, recognizing the heightened vulnerability of personal data extraction and exploitation in the age of AI. To address these concerns, he is urging Congress to enact data privacy legislation that addresses these pressing issues. Furthermore, he underscores the need for intensified research into privacy-preserving technologies.

To facilitate this research endeavor, President Biden has not only established but also allocated funding for a Research Coordination Network.

In alignment with this comprehensive approach, the EO outlines an intent to evaluate the data collection and utilization practices within government agencies. The goal is to strengthen privacy guidelines for these agencies, further enhancing data protection for citizens.

Moreover, the initiative places a strong emphasis on promoting equity and civil rights in the context of AI. The EO underscores the potential for irresponsible AI usage to exacerbate discrimination, bias, and other injustices within sectors such as justice, healthcare, and housing.

“America already leads in AI innovation—more AI startups raised first-time capital in the United States last year than in the next seven countries combined. The Executive Order ensures that we continue to lead the way in innovation and competition,” the Biden/Harris administration wrote in the EO.

This initiative will establish a multifaceted approach, including the development of a resource tool to grant AI researchers access to essential AI resources and data. This include technical support to small startups and entrepreneurs seeking to bring AI innovations to the commercial market. In addition, the initiative aims to streamline and modernize visa criteria, interviews, and reviews, with a specific focus on broadening opportunities for skilled immigrants engaged in the field of AI technology.

Several AI experts have weighed in on the new executive order.

“We firmly believe in the need to protect AI equivalent to the immense value it can deliver. In order to build and ship AI that is secure and trusted, organizations must rigorously test (“red team”) their AI and understand the total composition of elements used to create that AI, said Ian Swanson, CEO of Protect AI and former head of AI at Amazon.

Nadia Gonzalez, chief marketing officer at Scibids, a company that combines AI and advertising campaigns, believes that the Executive Order is encouraging. It signals that the White House is taking AI seriously and is “moving us away from the patchwork approach that has so far occurred at a state-by-state level,” she said. “AI has the potential to drastically improve how governments operate, protect privacy at large, and promote innovation, but care must be taken to ensure that the regulations go far enough.”

“This executive order from the Biden administration – while directed at federal organizations – follows similar plans by other countries and the EU and is an important step towards ensuring responsible AI use. It will force many organizations to reevaluate their own processes and how they ethically leverage the technology”, added Michael Berthold, CEO of data analysis company KNIME.

In a significant development, the administration is set to provide comprehensive guidance to government agencies on effectively collaborating with Artificial Intelligence (AI). This guidance will encompass facilitating the procurement of AI products and services, as well as expediting the recruitment of AI professionals within the government ranks.

C++ can be found in video games, servers, databases and many areas. It is also actively used in the blockchain ecosystem, and Bitcoin or the Solidity smart contract language are written entirely in C++. In 2022, C++ ranks eighth on the list of highest paid programming languages according to a DevJobs Scanner survey.

And according to the TIOBE index, C++ is among the most commonly used programming languages along with Python and Java. The salaries earned by C++, Java and Python programmers are getting higher. Therefore, choosing a career in programming as well as gaining knowledge in C++, Java and Python would be an excellent start towards building your better future.

But what are the annual salaries for Python, Java and C++? eFinancialCareers takes a look at the 2023 Developer Report from engineering analytics company Stack Overflow, which ranks the top three highest-paying three of the world’s most-used programming languages.

Let’s find out.

See in our gallery what are the annual salaries for Java, C++ and Python.

According to the report, Microsoft’s global water consumption increased by 34% between 2021 and 2022 as a result of significant investments in artificial intelligence.

In training GPT-3 at Microsoft data centers, it is estimated that 700,000 liters or about 185,000 gallons of fresh water were used. That’s enough water to fill the cooling tower of a nuclear reactor, according to Gizmodo, and the same amount used to produce 370 BMW cars or 320 Tesla cars, according to the study.

Using these calculations, it was determined that ChatGPT would need 500 ml of water for every 5 to 50 questions it answered.

In a very short period of time, generative AI assistants like ChatGPT, Bard, Dall-E and others have managed to become a part of not only the professional lives of many, but have also crept their way into their personal lives. And the touchy subject of whether AI will replace the need for humans still holds a prominent place today.

Small businesses developing advances in AI are also attracting significant investment from IT giants.

In May, the company said it planned to lay off employees to cut costs after suffering losses.

The cuts will take effect at the end of the month. According to sources, Intel will lay off 10 GPU software engineers, 8 system software development engineers, 6 cloud software engineers, 6 product marketing engineers and 6 system-on-chip design engineers, as well as other employees.

Earlier this year, in May, Intel announced its cost-cutting plan in a difficult macroeconomic environment.

In June this year, however, there were rumors that the company was planning to sell its Bengaluru office as it would continue to focus on the Hybrid-first model.