Databricks Apps is a new platform designed to make building internal data and AI applications something that can be done in a few clicks. Available now in public preview on AWS and Azure, the template-based system lets users weave data and frameworks of choice into full-featured apps that can run in the Databricks environment. The company says the system can code and deploy a secure data app with AI integration in five minutes. “Ideal use cases include data visualization, AI applications, self-service analytics and data quality monitoring,” according to the San Francisco-based company. Continue reading Databricks Previews Toolkit for Internal Data, AI App Creation

OpenAI has acquired Rockset, a database firm that provides real-time analytics, indexing and search capabilities. Rockset will help OpenAI enable its customers to better leverage their own data as they build and utilize intelligent applications. Rockset technology will be integrated into the retrieval infrastructure across OpenAI products, with members of Rockset’s San Mateo, California-based team joining the staff of OpenAI, which is headquartered in San Francisco. This is the second major purchase for OpenAI, following last year’s acquisition of New York-based AI design studio Global Illumination. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Continue reading OpenAI to Expand Data Indexing, Analysis with Rockset Tech

Amazon has pulled the plug on CodeWhisperer, which has been incorporated into its Q Developer product, announced at November’s re:Invent as part of an AI-powered AWS enterprise suite called Amazon Q, which also includes Q Business. Both Q Developer, which enables natural language coding, and Q Business, a data-driven productivity tool are now in general release, and Q Apps has just been added in preview, letting employees “build generative AI-powered apps from their company’s data, without any prior coding experience.” The move comes as Amazon seeks to gain ground on the Microsoft-owned GitHub’s AI coding products. Continue reading AWS CodeWhisperer Is Rebranded as Part of Amazon Q Suite

Cyberattacks against gamers have increased during the coronavirus pandemic, according a report from cloud services company Akamai, which detailed that hackers attempted almost 10 billion credential-stuffing attacks to take over accounts. Akamai security researcher Steve Ragan, who wrote the report, noted that, “as games move online and leverage cloud infrastructure and cross-platform and cross-generation play, that’s an attack surface.” “The bigger the attack surface, the more room [hackers] have to play,” he added. Continue reading Akamai Reports a Rise in Game Hacking During the Pandemic

IBM estimates that smartphones and devices related to the Internet of Things will generate 44 zettabytes (exabytes to the thousandths) by 2020. To handle all that information, IBM is looking at storage solutions that combine machine learning and artificial intelligence, both of which excel at finding patterns. Other companies are looking for solutions, including Pure, which is combining flash storage and engineering to create a storage unit that currently holds 16 petabytes, or five times most storage devices. Continue reading Users Seek New Storage and Cloud Solutions as Data Explodes

The National Security Agency is funding a project at Carnegie Mellon University to develop the world’s first “polyglot” programming language that combines CSS, JavaScript, PHP, HTML5, and more. Wyvern, the new language, intends to make Web programming easier. Files will be more organized, making it easier for Web developers to secure their websites, which seems to be the NSA’s primary goal. Wyvern is an open source project still in development. Continue reading NSA Funds Development of All-In-One Programming Language

A team of open source developers, including several former Google engineers, is working on software that will allow companies to ensure that their cloud computing systems will run even if a server or data center goes down. The software known as CockroachDB is based on Google’s Spanner system, which uses thousands of servers to run its online empire. CockroachDB will similarly replicate information across data centers, so online operations will not suffer from outages. Continue reading CockroachDB Cloud-Based Software Makes Websites Resilient