https://www.theguardian.com/technology/programming Latest news and features from theguardian.com, the world's leading liberal voice en-gb Guardian News &amp; Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2026 Wed, 28 Oct 2026 02:28:52 GMT 2026-10-28T02:28:52Z en-gb Guardian News &amp; Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2026 https://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.png https://www.theguardian.com https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/22/the-guardian-view-on-ai-safety-the-push-for-global-regulation-must-advance <p>The current US administration is an obstacle, but public demand for protection will ultimately prevail</p><p>Organisations around the world <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/21/flaw-in-php-computer-language-leads-to-shutdown-of-websites-around-world">scrambled</a> on Thursday to fix critical flaws in PHP, the software that powers much of the web. The vulnerabilities could allow attackers to take control of affected servers. Some websites were taken offline as a precaution while fixes were installed. The paradox is that while AI <a href="https://global.morningstar.com/en-gb/news/alliance-news/1792657411416821400/no-breach-of-uk-budget-security-after-critical-flaw-found-in-php">helped</a> researchers uncover the flaw, it also threatens to accelerate the ability to exploit it. Amazon <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/amazon-threat-intelligence-identifies-php2shell-exploitation-prior-to-public-disclosure-in-madpot/">said</a> that it had detected an attempt before the public disclosure of the PHP flaws.</p><p>What the episode highlights is AI’s central role in security – and not always for the right reasons. OpenAI’s models have also been responsible for two alarming hacks this year – a security breach of an Australian health department website and a&nbsp;raid by a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/08/openai-rogue-models-hugging-face-investigation">swarm of AI bots</a> on Hugging Face, an AI&nbsp;services platform. Citing those incidents, the AI&nbsp;minister, Kanishka&nbsp;Narayan, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/building-a-safer-more-secure-britain-in-the-age-of-ai">warned</a> that a similar cyber-attack on the UK is “likely, if not inevitable”.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/22/the-guardian-view-on-ai-safety-the-push-for-global-regulation-must-advance">Continue reading...</a> AI (artificial intelligence) Cybercrime Internet Computing Technology Kanishka Narayan Politics Labour Donald Trump US news US politics UK news Data and computer security Programming Thu, 22 Oct 2026 17:30:45 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/22/the-guardian-view-on-ai-safety-the-push-for-global-regulation-must-advance Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Editorial 2026-10-22T17:30:45Z https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/22/websites-across-world-hit-by-millions-of-attempts-to-exploit-php-code-flaw <p>Problem in language that underpins 70% of sites has led governments and companies to pull sites offline to patch fault</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/22/tell-us-small-business-have-you-been-affected-by-the-php-code-flaw">Tell us: have you been affected by the PHP code flaw?</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/22/what-is-php-computer-language-flaw-causing-global-website-shutdowns">What is PHP, and how bad is the computer language flaw causing website shutdowns globally</a>?</p></li></ul><p>Websites around the world have been hit by millions of attempts to exploit a recently discovered vulnerability in their code, cybersecurity companies have said, as the US warned the flaw could allow attackers to take control of web servers, steal data and disrupt services.</p><p>The problem in the PHP programming language, which underpins about 70% of the world’s websites, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/21/flaw-in-php-computer-language-leads-to-shutdown-of-websites-around-world">emerged on Wednesday</a> causing governments and companies to pull their websites off the internet before they could be attacked and so they could patch the fault.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/22/websites-across-world-hit-by-millions-of-attempts-to-exploit-php-code-flaw">Continue reading...</a> Internet Data and computer security Hacking Technology Programming Computing World news NSA Cybercrime Data protection Thu, 22 Oct 2026 16:42:54 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/22/websites-across-world-hit-by-millions-of-attempts-to-exploit-php-code-flaw Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Robert Booth and Aisha Down 2026-10-22T16:42:54Z https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/22/what-is-php-computer-language-flaw-causing-global-website-shutdowns <p>An estimated 70% of websites use the open-source language. What is the identified vulnerability in it?</p><p>Website owners faced millions of attempts to exploit a serious security vulnerability in their programming language, it has emerged, triggering a rush by governments and businesses to fix the problem.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/21/flaw-in-php-computer-language-leads-to-shutdown-of-websites-around-world">newly discovered</a> vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language that underpins most websites, allows hackers to carry out cyber-attacks and steal data if not fixed. What were the vulnerabilities and why did they affect so many sites?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/22/what-is-php-computer-language-flaw-causing-global-website-shutdowns">Continue reading...</a> Data and computer security Internet Cybercrime Hacking Computing Programming Technology Open source Thu, 22 Oct 2026 16:42:23 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/22/what-is-php-computer-language-flaw-causing-global-website-shutdowns Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Josh Taylor and Robert Booth 2026-10-22T16:42:23Z https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/21/flaw-in-php-computer-language-leads-to-shutdown-of-websites-around-world <p>Precautionary takedowns come as experts say bad actors could exploit vulnerability in language used by 70% of sites</p><p>Websites around the globe have gone dark after a serious vulnerability was found in a computer language used to build much of the world wide web.</p><p>Belgian, Dutch, Finnish, French and German sites were among those that governments took down temporarily as they scrambled to patch the critical weakness in PHP, a language used by almost <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php">70% of websites</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/21/flaw-in-php-computer-language-leads-to-shutdown-of-websites-around-world">Continue reading...</a> Internet Data and computer security Computing Programming Technology World news Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:39:15 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/21/flaw-in-php-computer-language-leads-to-shutdown-of-websites-around-world Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Robert Booth and Aisha Down 2026-10-22T00:39:15Z https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/oct/18/margaret-hamilton-obituary <p>Pioneering software engineer whose work was critical to the Apollo moon landings</p><p>Apollo was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jul/02/apollo-space-missions-eugene-cernan">a bold, innovative project</a>. It tested the boundaries of technology and human achievement, and took people to the moon. However, one thing it failed to challenge was the prevailing hierarchy. Nearly everyone involved in Nasa’s space programme in the 1960s was male and white. If you weren’t, you needed to be exceptional at what you did.</p><p>Margaret Hamilton, who has died aged 90, was one of those exceptional people. Without her input, sending spacecraft into lunar orbit, and putting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/26/neil-armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a> and his successors on to the surface of the moon, might have been impossible.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/oct/18/margaret-hamilton-obituary">Continue reading...</a> Space Programming Technology The moon Nasa People in science MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology US news Education Science Computing Women World news Sun, 18 Oct 2026 10:43:26 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/oct/18/margaret-hamilton-obituary Photograph: AP Photograph: AP Photograph: AP Mick O'Hare 2026-10-18T10:43:26Z https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/28/frank-land-obituary <p>Business computer pioneer and the UK’s first professor of information systems </p><p>November 2026 will mark the 75th anniversary of the world’s first commercial job run on a stored program computer. On 29 November 1951, the Bakery Valuations job calculated the costs, earnings and margins of the baked goods produced by J Lyons &amp; Co, which was then the UK’s largest catering firm and the first business in the world to use a computer to support its operations.</p><p>Lyons recruited a programming team to work on the Lyons Electronic Office – Leo – and in 1953 Frank Land was among the new cohort. His pioneering role led both to his founding of the academic study of information systems and to a passionate commitment to preserving Leo’s heritage.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/28/frank-land-obituary">Continue reading...</a> Computing Programming Technology Business Thu, 28 May 2026 16:04:06 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/28/frank-land-obituary Photograph: Lyons copyright Photograph: Lyons copyright Photograph: Lyons copyright Georgina Ferry 2026-05-28T16:04:06Z https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/08/i-fell-into-it-ex-criminal-hackers-urge-manchester-pupils-to-use-web-skills-for-good <p>Initiative aims to identify proficient gamers and coders who can help companies identify flaws in their cybersecurity </p><p>Cybercriminals, the shadowy online figures often depicted in Hollywood movies as hooded villains capable of wiping millions of pounds off the value of businesses at a keystroke, are not usually known for their candour.</p><p>But in a sixth-form college in Manchester this week, two former hackers gave the young people gathered an honest appraisal of what living a life of internet crime really looks like.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/08/i-fell-into-it-ex-criminal-hackers-urge-manchester-pupils-to-use-web-skills-for-good">Continue reading...</a> Hacking Cybercrime Co-operative Group UK news Technology Internet Programming Game culture Young people Manchester Sun, 08 Feb 2026 08:00:25 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/08/i-fell-into-it-ex-criminal-hackers-urge-manchester-pupils-to-use-web-skills-for-good Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian Dan Milmo Global technology editor 2026-02-08T08:00:25Z https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/21/politicians-should-take-a-tip-from-product-managers-and-treat-u-turns-as-iterations <p>Forget a rigid approach to planning – opposition leaders and MPs could help the government refine plans, writes <strong>Alan Ogilvie</strong></p><p>Kemi Badenoch’s recent ridiculing of the prime minister over a supposed U-turn on digital ID plans (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/14/keir-starmer-denies-roll-back-of-digital-ids-is-yet-another-u-turn">Keir Starmer denies change to digital ID plan is yet another U-turn, 14 January</a>) is the latest example of a frustratingly narrow view of leadership. To the Conservative leader, adapting a policy is a sign of “no sense of direction”; to those of us who work in product management, it looks like necessary iteration of the process.</p><p>Of course, the accusation is bipartisan. When in opposition, the Labour party was just as quick to weaponise the U-turn label. We have created a political culture – fuelled by the media and a public that seemingly demands unwavering consistency – that treats flexibility as a character flaw.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/21/politicians-should-take-a-tip-from-product-managers-and-treat-u-turns-as-iterations">Continue reading...</a> Politics Programming Software Kemi Badenoch House of Commons UK news Technology Wed, 21 Jan 2026 17:49:12 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/21/politicians-should-take-a-tip-from-product-managers-and-treat-u-turns-as-iterations Photograph: House of Commons/PA Photograph: House of Commons/PA Photograph: House of Commons/PA Guardian Staff 2026-01-21T17:49:12Z https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/jan/05/generation-ai-fears-of-social-divide-unless-all-children-learn-computing-skills <p>Children are growing up as AI natives and experts say computing skills should be on par with reading and writing</p><p>In a Cambridge classroom, Joseph, 10, trained his AI model to discern between drawings of apples and drawings of smiles.</p><p>“AI gets lots of things wrong,” he said, as it mistakenly identified a fruit as a face. He set about retraining it and, in a flash, he had it back on track – instinctively understanding the inner nature of artificial intelligence and machine learning in a way few adults do.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/jan/05/generation-ai-fears-of-social-divide-unless-all-children-learn-computing-skills">Continue reading...</a> Education AI (artificial intelligence) Schools Computing Technology Raspberry Pi Cambridge UK news Children Programming Society Mon, 05 Jan 2026 14:00:10 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/jan/05/generation-ai-fears-of-social-divide-unless-all-children-learn-computing-skills Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian Robert Booth UK technology editor 2026-01-05T14:00:10Z https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/08/andy-west-obituary <p>The characters in the text you are now reading align with an international open source standard, Unicode, which underpins the digitisation of written scripts. English dominates the internet, and has dominated the development of digital tools from the start. But encoding scripts for languages that do not use Roman letters is vital to the health and functioning of living cultures and societies, and to scholarship in those no longer spoken.</p><p>My friend Andy West, who has died aged 65 of a heart attack, played a prominent role at the heart of the network of experts who encoded Tibetan and other scripts for what, in China, are designated “minority” languages, a term he had little use for. He was also heavily involved in the encoding of historic Asian languages including Tangut and Khitan. Andy’s interests were capacious: the standard emojis for the dodo and the mammoth also bear his mark.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/08/andy-west-obituary">Continue reading...</a> Computing Programming Languages Technology Wed, 08 Oct 2025 16:43:48 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/08/andy-west-obituary Photograph: none Photograph: none Photograph: none Robert Bickers 2025-10-08T16:43:48Z https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/26/competition-shows-humans-are-still-better-than-ai-at-coding-just <p>Przemysław Dębiak, who beat OpenAI at world finals, says he may be last human to win due to incredible pace of technological progress</p><p>Computers have taken the crown in chess, Go and poker, but when it comes to competitive coding, humans still have the edge – just.</p><p>Przemysław Dębiak, a Polish coder and mind sports champion, narrowly clinched a victory over OpenAI’s entrant in the AtCoder World Tour Finals 2025 in Tokyo earlier this month. The elite coder, however, who goes by the online name Psyho, predicts he may be the last human to win the prestigious title given the incredible pace of technological progress.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/26/competition-shows-humans-are-still-better-than-ai-at-coding-just">Continue reading...</a> AI (artificial intelligence) Programming Software Computing Technology Society World news Sat, 26 Jul 2025 11:56:28 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/26/competition-shows-humans-are-still-better-than-ai-at-coding-just Photograph: Marcelo Mayo/Alamy Photograph: Marcelo Mayo/Alamy Photograph: Marcelo Mayo/Alamy Hannah Devlin Science correspondent 2025-07-26T11:56:28Z https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/16/ai-software-coding-programmer-expertise-jobs-threat <p>AI is so good at writing software that one father asked it to organise his kids’ school lunches. But that doesn’t mean it’s taking over</p><p>Way back in 2023, Andrej Karpathy, an eminent AI guru, made waves with a striking claim that “<a href="https://x.com/karpathy/status/1617979122625712128">the hottest new programming language is English</a>”. This was because the advent of large language models (LLMs) meant that from now on humans would not have to learn arcane programming languages in order to tell computers what to do. Henceforth, they could speak to machines like the Duke of Devonshire spoke to his gardener, and the machines would do their bidding.</p><p>Ever since LLMs emerged, programmers have been early adopters, using them as unpaid assistants (or “co-pilots”) and finding them useful up to a point – but always with the proviso that, like interns, they make mistakes, and you need to have real programming expertise to spot those.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/16/ai-software-coding-programmer-expertise-jobs-threat">Continue reading...</a> AI (artificial intelligence) Software Programming Computing Technology Sun, 16 Mar 2025 05:30:09 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/16/ai-software-coding-programmer-expertise-jobs-threat Photograph: Posed by model; Cavan Images/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF Photograph: Posed by model; Cavan Images/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF Photograph: Posed by model; Cavan Images/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF John Naughton 2025-03-16T05:30:09Z https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jan/19/george-coulouris-obituary <p>My friend and colleague George Coulouris, who has died aged 87, was a visionary researcher of personal computers and a cycling campaigner.</p><p>In 1965, as a lecturer at Imperial College London, he started work on ICL’s content-addressable file store, which sped up BT’s directory inquiries. He then moved in 1971 to Queen Mary College (now Queen Mary, University of London), progressing from lecturer to reader to professor in the department of computer science. There, he worked to show that the hardware guru John Iliffe’s designs had real advantages over mainframes of the day.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jan/19/george-coulouris-obituary">Continue reading...</a> Queen Mary, University of London Programming Computing Technology University of Cambridge Research Education New York Sun, 19 Jan 2025 17:44:36 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jan/19/george-coulouris-obituary Photograph: provided by friend Photograph: provided by friend Photograph: provided by friend Richard Bornat 2025-01-19T17:44:36Z https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/17/audrey-tang-toxic-social-media-fake-news-taiwan-trans-government-internet <p>As the ‘civic hacker’ who became Taiwan’s first transgender cabinet minister, she is used to breaking boundaries. What can the rest of the world learn from her vision of a happy and inclusive web?</p><p>Audrey Tang didn’t have the easiest of starts in life. The Taiwanese hacker turned government minister was told at the age of four that she had a 50-50 chance of dying unless she had a major operation to fix a hole in her heart. Her doctor told her she could drop down dead at any moment if she got overexcited – and she had to wait eight more years for the op. This kind of news might bring out someone’s selfish side – if your life is going to be so truncated, live for yourself. Not Tang, though. She was a tiny child with a whopping IQ and a precocious capacity to think. She decided she wanted to learn everything she could and share it with the world. At five, living with her family in Taipei, she started reading prodigiously – mainly classical Chinese literature. Huge tomes. Then she’d recount her own version of the stories to her classmates. “I liked storytelling. When I was seven I’d speak to the entire school about stories I’d learned from a book and retell them in a way I found more interesting.” Did she realise she was super bright back then? She shakes her head. “No, I realised I was super ill.”</p><p>By six Tang was studying advanced mathematics; at eight she started writing code for video games, using pencil and paper because she didn’t yet own a computer. And whatever she learned, it was with the intention of sharing her knowledge. Before long it became apparent she was a digital genius. Tang, 43, is roughly the same age as the internet (1 January 1983 is considered its birthday). She grew up alongside the world wide web; it was her playmate. In her teens, Tang believed the internet was there to bring her vision to fruition: to democratise knowledge, to make everything accessible, to make the world a better place.<strong> </strong>But then she saw it changing, being used to spread falsehoods and generate all-powerful companies that made digital capitalism’s founding fathers unfeasibly rich while creating unimagined levels of inequality.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/17/audrey-tang-toxic-social-media-fake-news-taiwan-trans-government-internet">Continue reading...</a> Taiwan Open source Technology Computing Internet Transgender Books Hacking Programming Life and style Sat, 17 Aug 2024 09:00:04 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/17/audrey-tang-toxic-social-media-fake-news-taiwan-trans-government-internet Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian Simon Hattenstone 2024-08-17T09:00:04Z https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/11/chatgpt-ai-will-co-pilot-coders-to-new-heights-of-creativity <p>Far from making programmers an endangered species, AI will release them from the grunt work that stifles innovation</p><p>When digital computers were invented, the first task was to instruct them to do what we wanted. The problem was that the machines didn’t understand English – they only knew ones and zeros. You could program them with long sequences of these two digits and if you got the sequence right then the machines would do what you wanted. But life’s too short for composing infinite strings of ones and zeros, so we began designing programming languages that allowed us to express our wishes in a human-readable form that could then be translated (by a piece of software called a “compiler”) into terms that machines could understand and obey.</p><p>Over the next 60 years or so, these programming languages – with names such as Fortran, Basic, Algol, COBOL, PL/1, LISP, C, C++, Python – proliferated like rabbits, so that there are now many hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of them. At any rate, it takes quite a while to scroll down to the end of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programming_languages">Wikipedia page that lists them</a>. Some are very specialised, others more general, and over the years programmers created libraries of snippets of code (called <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zh66pbk/revision/7">subroutines</a>) for common tasks – searching and sorting, for example – that you could incorporate when writing a particular program.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/11/chatgpt-ai-will-co-pilot-coders-to-new-heights-of-creativity">Continue reading...</a> AI (artificial intelligence) Programming Software Computing Technology Sat, 11 May 2024 15:00:29 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/11/chatgpt-ai-will-co-pilot-coders-to-new-heights-of-creativity Photograph: Science Photo Library/Alamy Photograph: Science Photo Library/Alamy Photograph: Science Photo Library/Alamy John Naughton 2024-05-11T15:00:29Z https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/13/horrified-by-horizon-then-get-ready-to-be-totally-appalled-by-ai <p>As the Post Office debacle has amply demonstrated, putting blind faith into a new form of technology can be perilous</p><p>It doesn’t take much imagination to describe what happens when a large corporation, over 16 long years, is allowed vindictively to prosecute 900 subpostmasters for theft, false accounting and fraud, when shortfalls at their branches were in fact due to bugs in the accounting software imposed on them by that corporation, as “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”.</p><p>But then Rishi Sunak is not the most imaginative of men. The US Marines, on the other hand, have an economical term that fits the Horizon fiasco like a glove: it was a “clusterfuck” – primly defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “a very rude word for a complete failure or very serious problem in which many mistakes or problems happen at the same time”.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/13/horrified-by-horizon-then-get-ready-to-be-totally-appalled-by-ai">Continue reading...</a> Post Office Horizon scandal AI (artificial intelligence) Programming Computing Post Office Technology Sat, 13 Jan 2024 16:27:33 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/13/horrified-by-horizon-then-get-ready-to-be-totally-appalled-by-ai Photograph: David Sillitoe/The Guardian Photograph: David Sillitoe/The Guardian Photograph: David Sillitoe/The Guardian John Naughton 2024-01-13T16:27:33Z https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/13/truth-about-ai-might-produce-better-software <p>If there’s one area in which artificial intelligence could actually be useful, it’s in the writing of computer code</p><p>As you have doubtless noticed, we are in the middle of a feeding frenzy about something called generative AI. Legions of hitherto normal people – and economists – are surfing a wave of irrational exuberance about its transformative potential. It’s the newest new thing.</p><p>For anyone suffering from the fever, two antidotes are recommended. The first is the<a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/what-s-new-in-artificial-intelligence-from-the-2023-gartner-hype-cycle"> hype cycle monitor produced by consultants Gartner</a>, which shows the technology currently perched on the “peak of inflated expectations”, before a steep decline into the “trough of disillusionment”. The other is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstadter%27s_law">Hofstadter’s law</a>, about the difficulty of estimating how long difficult tasks will take, which says that “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s law”. Just because a powerful industry and its media boosters are losing their marbles about something doesn’t mean that it will sweep like a tsunami through society at large. Reality moves at a more leisurely pace.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/13/truth-about-ai-might-produce-better-software">Continue reading...</a> Programming AI (artificial intelligence) Software Computing Technology Sat, 13 Jan 2024 16:00:02 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/13/truth-about-ai-might-produce-better-software Photograph: welcomia/Getty Images/iStockphoto Photograph: welcomia/Getty Images/iStockphoto Photograph: welcomia/Getty Images/iStockphoto John Naughton 2024-01-13T16:00:02Z https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/24/the-real-santas-face-id-software-sorts-father-christmas-from-his-stand-ins <p>The man in red’s distinct visage emerges by algorithm, proving not any old bearded man looks like him</p><p>Santa impersonators watch out. Scientists have created a Santa-detection machine and used it to prove what children have been telling adults for generations – that Santa has a unique face which clearly distinguishes him from other elderly bearded men.</p><p>Previous research has suggested that children as young as three can identify Santa Claus based on his distinctive appearance.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/24/the-real-santas-face-id-software-sorts-father-christmas-from-his-stand-ins">Continue reading...</a> Christmas Children Research publishing Fairytales Technology Software Computing Programming UK news Science Sun, 24 Dec 2023 09:14:52 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/24/the-real-santas-face-id-software-sorts-father-christmas-from-his-stand-ins Photograph: stocknroll/Getty Images Photograph: stocknroll/Getty Images Photograph: stocknroll/Getty Images Linda Geddes Science correspondent 2023-12-24T09:14:52Z https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/24/david-turner-obituary <p>My father, David Turner, who has died aged 77, was a highly respected and renowned computer scientist whose name will always be associated with functional programming, and the lead that the UK still takes in developing and fostering the discipline.</p><p>David was an early advocate for functional programming, which promises a higher-level, more abstract approach to writing software. He will be particularly remembered for designing and implementing three programming languages: <a href="https://foldoc.org/St+Andrews+Static+Language">St Andrews Static language</a> (SASL, 1976), which is the basis of implementations of compiler and operating systems to this day; <a href="https://foldoc.org/Kent+Recursive+Calculator">Kent Recursive Calculator</a> (KRC, 1981); and <a href="https://foldoc.org/Miranda">Miranda</a> (1985), which became the first “lazy”, purely functional language to be commercially supported. The elegance and simplicity of these languages showed David’s taste and skill in choosing and combining language features, and their impact can be seen in languages in use today, particularly the later <a href="https://www.haskell.org/">Haskell language</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/24/david-turner-obituary">Continue reading...</a> Programming Software Computing Technology Computer science and IT University of Kent Universities Higher education Education Fri, 24 Nov 2023 19:35:38 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/24/david-turner-obituary Photograph: none Photograph: none Photograph: none Sarah Nicholas 2023-11-24T19:35:38Z https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/01/chatgpt-write-code-computer-programmer-software <p>The generative AI tool can write code on request, making the specialist skill of programming open to everyone</p><p>Benedict Evans, a tech analyst <a href="https://www.ben-evans.com/newsletter/">whose newsletter</a> is required reading for those who follow the industry, made an interesting point this week. He had, he said, been talking to generalist journalists who “were still under the impression that ChatGPT was a trivial parlour trick and the whole thing was about as interesting as a new iPhone app”. On the other hand, he continued, “most people in tech are walking around slowly, holding on to the top of their head with both hands to stop it flying off. But within that, I think we can see a range of attitudes.”</p><p>We certainly can – on a spectrum ranging from the view that this “generative AI” is going to be the biggest bonanza since the invention of the wheel, to fears that it augurs an existential risk to humanity, and numerous opinions in between. Seeking a respite from the firehose of contradictory commentary, I suddenly remembered an interview that Steve Jobs – the nearest thing to a visionary the tech industry has ever had – gave in 1990, and dug it out <a href="https://youtu.be/KmuP8gsgWb8">on YouTube</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/01/chatgpt-write-code-computer-programmer-software">Continue reading...</a> ChatGPT Programming AI (artificial intelligence) Computing Technology Science Sat, 01 Apr 2023 15:00:03 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/01/chatgpt-write-code-computer-programmer-software Photograph: Joyi Chang/Alamy Photograph: Joyi Chang/Alamy Photograph: Joyi Chang/Alamy John Naughton 2023-04-01T15:00:03Z