TechCrunch Minute: Google's Gemini Code Assist wants to use AI to ...
Can AI eat the jobs of the developers who are busy building AI models? The short answer is no, but the longer answer is not yet settled. News this week that Google has a new AI-powered coding tool for developers means that competitive pressures between major tech companies to build the best service to help coders write more code, more quickly is still heating up.
Microsoft's GitHub Copilot service that has similar outlines has been steadily working toward enterprise adoption. Both companies want to eventually build developer-helping tech that can understand a company's codebase, allowing it to offer up more tailored suggestions and tips.
AI Tools in Development
Startups are in the fight as well, though they tend to focus more tailored solutions than the broader offerings from the largest tech companies; Pythagora, Tusk and Ellipsis from the most recent Y Combinator batch are working on app creation from user prompts, AI agents for bug-squashing and turning GitHub comments into code, respectively.
The Future of Coding
Everywhere you look, developers are building tools and services to help their own professional cohort. Developers learning to code today won't know a world in which they don't have AI-powered coding helps. Call it the graphic calculator era for software builders. But the risk — or the worry, I suppose — is that in time the AI tools that are ingesting mountains of code to get smarter to help humans do more will eventually be able to do enough that fewer humans are needed to do the work of writing code for companies themselves.
And if a company can spend less money and employ fewer people, it will; no job is safe, but some roles are just more difficult to replace at any given moment. Thankfully, given the complexities of modern software services, ever-present tech debt and an infinite number of edge cases, what big tech and startups are busy building today seem to be very useful coding helps and not something ready to replace or even reduce the number of humans building them. For now. I wouldn't take the other end of that bet on a multidecade time frame.
Microsoft's Latest AI Chips
Microsoft said on Thursday it plans to offer its cloud computing customers a platform of AMD artificial intelligence chips that will compete with components made by Nvidia, with details to be given at its Build developer conference next week. Microsoft's clusters of Advanced Micro Devices' flagship MI300X AI chips will be sold through its Azure cloud computing service.
Over 1,800 items are included in Best Buy's early summer sale, including top deals from KitchenAid, Garmin and more.
In an exclusive interview with BI, Sameer Samat said AI is a huge opportunity for Android. "We are going to seize that moment."
Ampere Computing on Thursday said it was pairing its chips with those from Qualcomm in a new offering aimed at lowering the power bills from operating artificial intelligence chips. Founded by Renee James, a former president of Intel, Ampere uses technology from Arm Holdings to make central processing chips that are used by Oracle, Alphabet's Google, and others. The startup has focused on making chips that are more energy efficient than industry leaders Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
Samsung joins the pile-on after everyone from actor Hugh Grant to startup angel Paul Graham blasted Apple for its 'Crush' ad. The iPhone could be going the way of the iPad Pro by becoming much thinner next year. However, you'll may have to pay quite a lot for this rumored slender model, which may replace the Plus in the annual iPhone lineup.
A British multinational design and engineering company behind world-famous buildings such as the Sydney Opera House has confirmed that it was the target of a deepfake scam that led to one of its Hong Kong employees paying out $25 million to fraudsters. The potential thinner version is likely to be priced higher than Apple's iPhone Pro Max, and is expected to be launched with the iPhone 17 in September 2025, the report said. The Cupertino, California-based company is still testing different designs for the device, code-named D23, that could have Apple's latest-generation processor, likely called A19, the report added. Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Upcoming Events and Debates
Microsoft has a Surface showcase and its Build developer conference planned for early next week. The Associated Press caught a glimpse of the event on Friday, which saw Donald and Melania Trump sitting front row in the audience. Ariff Hassan and Liliya Dauletaliyeva crossed paths at a wedding and couldn’t ignore their chemistry. They both flew across the world to continue their connection. Scheffler was booked at 7:28 a.m. ET after trying to enter the golf course.
Their no-show at Donald Trump's hush money trial is down to two things, said the former president's niece. What I saw wasn’t normal behavior for anyone, let alone my brilliant, amazing spouse. Even by recent standards, Thursday's meeting of the House Oversight Committee was a shocking train wreck.
Ukraine launched a massive drone attack against military and energy facilities in Russia and the occupied peninsula Crimea overnight, with Moscow saying Friday that over 100 unmanned weapons had been involved in the operation. Falling forever for this gown. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesJust hours after Donald Trump and Joe Biden agreed to debate each other on CNN in June, the cable news network announced that the debate will be moderated by its anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. The debate will take place in Atlanta at 9 p.m. on June 27, and will air live on CNN. It will be the first of at least two agreed upon presidential debates, with the second slated to be hosted by ABC on Sept. 10. Both Tapper and Bash have experience as debate mode. Three teenage girls are expected to plead guilty in the swarming death of Kenneth Lee near Union Station in December 2022, court heard Friday.
The girls, aged 13, 13, and 14, appeared in provincial court in Toronto. Three other girls, aged 15, 16, and 16, are expected to plead not guilty, court heard. Eight teenage girls were initially charged with second-degree murder in connection with Lee's death. They range in age from 13 to 16 years old. Lee, 59, was pronounced dead in hospital on Dec. 18, after being found unconscious in the street.
