Democrats significantly more likely than Republicans to rate NATO positively and to say U.S. benefits from membership (Clockwise from top left: Robert Michael/picture alliance, macky_ch, Tim Warner and olegda88, all via Getty Images) How we did this Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans’ opinions of NATO, Russia and the war between Russia and Ukraine. This analysis builds on previous Center research on Americans’ opinions of NATO, Russia and the war between Russia and Ukraine and on the most pressing foreign policy issues of the day going back decades, such as major world conflicts, trade and tariffs, U.S. military decisions and other related developments of the times. For this analysis, we surveyed 3,605 U.S. adults from March 24 to March 30, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Surveys were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology. Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology. More than three years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Americans remain divided along partisan lines in their views of the conflict, as well as in their attitudes toward NATO and perceptions of Russia. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have become less likely over the past year to say Russia is an enemy of the United States – and more likely to call it a partner or competitor. Republicans have also become less likely to say the U.S. has a responsibility to help Ukraine defend itself and to express concern about Russia defeating Ukraine or invading other countries in the region. As a result of this change in opinion, the partisan gap on many of these issues has grown. For example, when asked whether Russia is an enemy, competitor or partner of the U.S., 40% of Republicans say Russia is an enemy, down from 58% last year. The share of Democrats and Democratic leaners who see Russia as an enemy is down 5 percentage points over the same period. Overall, half of Americans now call Russia an enemy, down from 61% in 2024. These are among the findings from a Pew Research Center survey conducted March 24-30, 2025, among 3,605 U.S. adults. Views of NATO Americans continue to see NATO in a mostly favorable light, and views among Republicans, Democrats and the public overall have changed little over the past year. As has long been the case, Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to have a positive opinion of the military alliance. About two-thirds of Americans (66%) say the U.S. benefits from NATO membership, though this share has decreased slightly from 71% in 2021. This drop is reflected among Republicans (down 6 points) while opinion among Democrats has held steady. Views of Russia and Putin Few in the U.S. see Russia favorably (13%) or have confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin to do the right thing regarding world affairs (12%). Both Democrats and Republicans have generally negative views of Russia and Putin, but these attitudes are more intense among Democrats – who are more likely than Republicans to express very unfavorable views of Russia (62% vs. 41%) and say they have no confidence at all in Putin (72% vs. 43%). Over the past year, Republicans have become somewhat more likely to see Russia favorably and to express confidence in Putin, while Democratic views are largely unchanged. Views of the Russia-Ukraine war Nearly half of Americans (47%) are extremely or very concerned about Russia invading other countries, and 43% are concerned about Russia defeating and taking over Ukraine. Republicans have become less concerned about both possibilities in recent months, while Democrats have become more so. Majorities of Republicans and Democrats alike see the war between Russia and Ukraine as important to U.S. interests, though Democrats are more likely to hold this view. Most Americans say the war is important to them personally, too, including 47% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats. When it comes to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 49% have confidence in him to do the right thing regarding world affairs. Democrats are much more likely to express confidence in Zelenskyy than Republicans (70% vs. 30%). source

An update to ChatGPT made it easy to simulate Hayao Miyazaki’s style of animation, which has flooded social media with memes. Beyond the hype, this trend raises serious questions about copyright infringement. This article in The New York Times sums up some of the questions raised by the phenomenon. See below for an example of such an image shared on French President Emmanuel Macron’s Instagram account (source and screenshot from Le Monde).   It’s hard to miss another trend on social media, the “Starter Pack.” You can easily create your own figurine in seconds, such as this one below of French soccer star Kylian Mbappé created by Canal+ on its Instagram account. They look cool and fun, going viral very quickly.   But according to various scientists and researchers such as Dr. Sasha Luccioni, generating images via generative AI (genAI) tools consumes a lot of energy and water (several liters to cool servers for just one image). This is pale in comparison to videos. Moving forward, expect consumers to produce short-form but also long-form videos. Expect User-Generated Content on steroids. In fact, looking at the overall impact of AI (not just consumer usage), the International Energy Agency recently released a thorough analysis projecting that electricity demand from data centers worldwide is set to more than double by 2030 to around 945 terawatt-hours, slightly more than the entire electricity consumption of Japan today. AI will be the most significant driver of this increase, with electricity demand from AI-optimized data centers projected to more than quadruple by 2030. These are just two recent examples of how genAI is entering our daily lives, but there are many more. Marc Zao-Sanders recently published a very interesting piece in the Harvard Business Review on how people are really using genAI in 2025 — and it’s fascinating to see how genAI is increasingly being used for personal and professional support (for example, for therapy/companionship, organizing one’s life, or finding purpose).   At Forrester, we analyze the implications of such changes on consumer behaviors and attitudes, and what it means for brands. My colleague Audrey Chee-Read recently published a report showing that consumer optimism toward GenAI grows. We’ve just got the results from Forrester’s March 2025 Consumer Pulse Survey, where we asked 461 UK online adults — who’ve used or heard of genAI — how concerned they are about the impact of genAI. Top three concerns: Spread of misinformation/disinformation: 75% Data privacy violations: 69% Impact on human intellect: 68% Bottom two concerns: Bias and discrimination: 55% Environmental sustainability: 39% (the only one below 50%) This data was collected right before the buzz on the “Starter Pack” and “Studio Ghibli” memes. It’ll be interesting to see how it evolves in the coming months, but it’s clear that despite the growing optimism, consumers are still highly concerned. My colleague Audrey Chee-Read and myself are working on new research on this exciting topic. If you’re a Forrester client, stay tuned for additional research on how consumers use and perceive AI. Go to my Forrester bio and click “Follow” to be notified. You can also follow me on LinkedIn here. Also, as a client, you can schedule time with me for an inquiry or guidance session, or talk to your account team about workshops and strategy days on anticipating how AI will change how we interact with technology and brands. source

Microsoft researchers claim to have developed the first 1-bit large language model with 2 billion parameters. The model, BitNet b1.58 2B4T, can run on commercial CPUs such as Apple’s M2. “Trained on a corpus of 4 trillion tokens, this model demonstrates how native 1-bit LLMs can achieve performance comparable to leading open-weight, full-precision models of similar size, while offering substantial advantages in computational efficiency (memory, energy, latency),” Microsoft wrote in the project’s Hugging Face depository. What makes a bitnet model different? Bitnets, or 1-bit LLMs, are compressed versions of large language models. The original 2-billion parameter scale model trained on a corpus of 4 billion tokens was shrunken down into a version with drastically reduced memory requirements. All weights are expressed as one of three values: -1, 0, and 1. Other LLMs might use 32-bit or 16-bit floating-point formats. SEE: Threat actors can inject malicious packages into AI models that resurface during “vibe coding.” In the research paper, which was posted on Arxiv as a work in progress, the researchers detail how they created the bitnet. Other groups have created bitnets before, but, the researchers say, most of their efforts are either post-training quantization (PTQ) methods applied to pre-trained full-precision models or native 1-bit models trained from scratch that were developed at a smaller scale in the first place. BitNet b1.58 2B4T is a native 1-bit LLM trained at scale; it only takes up 400MB, compared to other “small models” that can reach up to 4.8 GB. BitNet b1.58 2B4T model performance, purpose, and limitations Performance compared to other AI models BitNet b1.58 2B4T outperforms other 1-bit models, according to Microsoft. BitNet b1.58 2B4T has a maximum sequence length of 4096 tokens; Microsoft claims it outperforms small models like Meta’s Llama 3.2 1B or Google’s Gemma 3 1B. Researchers’ goal for this bitnet Microsoft’s goal is to make LLMs accessible to more people by creating versions that run on edge devices, in resource-constrained environments, or in real-time applications. However, BitNet b1.58 2B4T still isn’t simple to run; it requires hardware compatible with Microsoft’s bitnet.cpp framework. Running it on a standard transformers library won’t produce any of the benefits in terms of speed, latency, or energy consumption. BitNet b1.58 2B4T doesn’t run on GPUs, as the majority of AI models do. More must-read AI coverage What’s next? Microsoft’s researchers plan to explore training larger, native 1-bit models (7B, 13B parameters and more).They note that most of today’s AI infrastructure lacks suitable hardware for 1-bit models, so they plan to explore “co-designing future hardware accelerators” specifically designed for compressed AI. The researchers also aim to: Increase context length. Improve performance on long-context chain-of-thought reasoning tasks. Add support for multiple languages other than English. Integrate 1-bit models into multimodal architectures. Better understand the theory behind why 1-bit training at scale produced efficiencies. source

“The key outcome all employees are driving for is respect,” says Cox. “I encourage leaders to focus on this. You can define what respect looks like and what the lack of it — disrespect — looks like. If you look at Pew Research data, disrespect is one of the top three reasons why people voluntarily leave.” More relevant products “If the people building your technology don’t have an appreciation and understanding for the culture of your buyers, you’re not going to optimize your investment,” says Palomarez. This can cover everything from the spoken and written language to the actual product ideas. If your team doesn’t have lived experience of the people in the markets you serve, you will miss something. You might miss many things. There are so many examples of this in AI development that it is affecting the development and application of the technology. If, for example, no one on your team has any lived experience around disability, you will probably miss a larger market than you think. “A lot of the work we do is around accessibility and digital inclusion,” says Hilary Stephenson, managing director at nexer digital. “People typically look at technology as designed for the majority and then look at edge cases. We flip that model. We design for the needs of disabled people, people who aren’t as confident, can’t afford Wi-Fi, or don’t trust digital services. If we design for them, we have a better chance of meeting the needs of everybody because everyone is aging or might break an arm or leg. We often think of accessibility as a niche thing for disabled people, but we all have access needs.” Improved engagement If you build a team that is inclusive, that welcomes a diverse group of people and works to make sure that the women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and those with disabilities are comfortable and able to bring their authentic selves to the workplace, those people will not be wasting mental energy protecting themselves, hiding, or navigating toxicity. And neither will anyone else. “When you build your team to cater to the people who have the most needs, you inadvertently make your team that much stronger for everybody else that might be experiencing something momentarily,” says Allen. “You have a framework that’s been built to foster a positive work environment for anybody who might be struggling.” The systems you have built to create a welcoming culture for everyone, serves everyone on the team, often in ways you can’t see until everyone is free to be who they are. “If you’re distracted about not being able to be authentic,” says Allen, “you’re taking up bandwidth and energy that otherwise could be going to doing your job extremely well.” source

Copilot Studio’s new computer use feature for AI automation. Image: Microsoft Microsoft announced this week that a new computer use feature is coming to Copilot Studio. Computer use will allow users to build AI-driven agents capable of interacting with their desktop and browser applications, as long as the third-party system it uses has a graphical user interface. User-friendly automation for even non-developers Currently, Microsoft Copilot Studio users can create agents to automate tasks in third-party applications but only within specific services. With the computer use capability, agents can use third-party applications and websites just as a person would, with the ability to click buttons, type into fields on-screen, and select from menus. This opens up a world of possibilities for automating business tasks. Copilot Studio’s new computer use feature aims to make the system’s robotic process automation more intuitive and accessible for the average user. With the ability to carry out natural language processing, provide full visibility over the computer’s use history, and automatically respond to updates, the automation is user-friendly, even for those who aren’t professional RPA developers. Microsoft’s announcement about Copilot Studio and computer use builds upon last month’s release of new AI features, which included deep reasoning capabilities for agents, model context protocol support, and the availability of agent flows within the system. More must-read AI coverage Advantages of Microsoft’s newest update to Copilot Studio Computer use is especially helpful for enhancing the capabilities of AI agents. The addition of computer use agents in Copilot Studio brings new functionality to the system and offers more benefits to the user. Functionality without an API connection: Agents can perform tasks within third-party systems without requiring an API connection. Automatic adaptation to changes in apps and websites: Computer use automatically adapts to system updates and processes adjustments in real time for an interruption-free experience. Built on Copilot Studio’s governance frameworks and security measures: Computer use complies with organizational and industry standards, and sensitive enterprise data is safeguarded within Microsoft Cloud boundaries, keeping it secure. Microsoft-hosted: Organizations don’t need to manage their servers, as computer use runs on Microsoft-hosted infrastructure. More business functionality: Microsoft’s possible use cases for the new feature include creating agents to automate data entry, process invoices, or perform market research. Test Copilot Studio’s computer use feature This new capability will be coming to Copilot Studio through an early access web preview. Users who are interested in testing and evaluating the computer use feature should fill out this form to let Microsoft know they would like to participate. source

The British Army has successfully neutralised swarms of drones in a trial of the “RapidDestroyer” — a new kind of weapon that uses high-frequency microwaves to disable critical electronic components in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), causing them to crash. The Army said it took down two swarms of eight drones during a single test at a site in West Wales. During the entire trial period, the weapon was used to “track, engage and defeat” more than 100 drones.  RapidDestroyer could be deployed in war zones across the world, including Ukraine, where drones have become ubiquitous on the battlefield. The UK’s Defence Intelligence agency estimates that Ukraine had to defend against attacks from more than 18,000 Russian drones last year.  “With improvements on range and power, which could come with further development, this would be a great asset to Layered Air Defence,” said Sergeant Mayers, who became the first British soldier to bring down drones using a radiofrequency weapon.   From Shark Tank to Tinder Swindler TNW Conference 2025 combines the latest breakthroughs in tech, the startup ecosystem & enterprise innovation While still under development, the weapon could provide a cheaper alternative to missile-based defence systems for specific applications, like taking down large swarms of drones. The Army estimates that each microwave blast costs just £0.10 (€0.12), with one shot enough to take out several small UAVs from a maximum range of 1km.  The RapidDestroyer was transported on a truck. Credit: GOV.UK RapidDestoyer isn’t the only direct-energy weapon the UK is working on. The British Army has also carried out several tests of DragonFire, a machine that fires high-powered laser beams at aerial targets.    These developments come amid a Europe-wide push in defence tech spending, as the continent looks to better arm itself amid tensions with the US. In March 2025, EU leaders endorsed the “ReArm Europe” plan, aiming to mobilise up to £683bn (€800bn) over the next four years to enhance military capabilities. The UK government, meanwhile, has committed to raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP and wants to spend at least 10% of its defence budget on “innovative technologies.” Defence tech is a key theme of this year’s Assembly, the invite-only policy track of TNW Conference. The event takes place on June 19 and 20 — a week before the NATO Summit arrives in Amsterdam. Tickets for TNW Conference are now on sale — use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 to grab an exclusive discount. source

Artificial intelligence promises to accelerate many of the tasks and functions that drive today’s business. Few organizations have realized its potential, however, mostly because AI capabilities are still relatively new and legacy architecture limits AI project scalability. Despite these limitations, chief information officers are under enormous pressure to deliver measurable, concrete return on AI investments, says executive recruiter Charley Betzig, managing director at Heller. In this Q&A with InformationWeek, Betzig discusses the CIO job market and how AI is influencing the CIO’s role. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. What do CIOs need to know about the job and the CIO job market? How is the CIO’s day-to-day role evolving? It’s all about AI — and it’s not just AI, in of itself, but it’s AI value creation. That affects every search, every CIO role. There are always different starting points, and every CIO role is a little bit different. But baseline, we are looking for CIOs who have created value using AI. Someone has to understand the business that they are walking into, understand the starting point, and then know how to build from that starting point to take the business where they want to go to achieve that value creation. Every business is starting on a different part of the spectrum. Some, to get value from AI, they are starting from a very primitive place in terms of data. You need to build a foundational data strategy to make sure data is clean and available so AI can be used to create that value. Related:Breaking Down the Walls Between IT and OT Charley Betzig Other organizations are further along, and you can start building those AI use cases more quickly. But it is really business acumen, to know the environment that you are walking into and how to move the organization forward from there. There is the cross-functional leadership — the IT function has evolved a lot over time. Early days, IT was more of a back-office function; it was a follower. Then you had this whole concept of IT as a leader — a CIO had to own all of technology in an organization. If the business owned any of it, it was bad, it was shadow IT. I think that is kind of going away too, especially with AI. There is kind of this notion of the CIO is sort of the sherpa, and the business is the one climbing the mountain. But the CIO is there guiding the way, putting the right guardrails in place, making sure everyone is moving in the right direction when pushing AI. But you need the business to be the ones who are out there driving these use cases because they know what they want. Related:How to Tell When You’re Working Your IT Team Too Hard What are companies looking for in a modern CIO? Is an MBA important or are there certain certifications that are proving more valuable? It’s always nice to have an MBA, but what I’m focused on is making sure CIOs have that right blend of technical chops and business acumen. Technical chops are the easiest thing to look for — we always look for CIOs that have a foundation in computer science or something like an information systems degree — those things point to that technical knowledge. If they have an MBA, then that is a plus for sure. But I more look to the education to make sure they have that technical foundation. Everything right now revolves around AI, but you still as CIO have to have that grounding in all of the traditional disciplines of IT. Whether that is systems, whether that’s infrastructure, whether that’s cybersecurity, you have to have that well-rounded background. Even as these AI technologies become more prolific, you must consider your past infrastructure spend, your cloud spend, that went into these technologies. How do you manage that? If you don’t have grounding in managing those costs, and being able to balance those costs with the innovation you are trying to create, that’s a recipe for failure on the cyber side. And AI is creating even more vulnerabilities from a cyber standpoint. Someone has to have that sort of foundation as well. You still have those classic disciplines you can’t forget about even as you’re searching for that shiny object. Related:3 Ways to Build a Culture of Experimentation to Fuel Innovation Are there certain CIO-specific skills that companies have a hard time hiring for? It goes back to that AI value creation — every company is trying to do that, and the hard part is it’s really a new thing. It’s not a ‘we can go out and we can recruit someone from Silicon Valley who is an AI pioneer and knows all about the sexiest different technologies that can be applied.’ Is that the best person to come into a manufacturing company in the Midwest and work with those employees on AI use cases to create value? It’s not. When we’re looking for skill sets, we’re looking for people who have actually taken those AI technologies and applied them within their organizations to create real business value — whether that is cost savings or top-line revenue creation, whatever those are. It’s hard to find those candidates, because there are a lot of those people who can talk the talk around AI, but when you really drill down there is not much in terms of results to show. It’s new, especially in applying the technology to certain settings. Take manufacturing: there’s not that many CIOs out there who have great examples of applying AI to create value within organizations. It’s certainly accelerating, and you’re going to see it accelerating more as we go into the future. It’s just so new that those examples are few and far between. There are certainly people out there who have done it, they are just not all over the place. What are CIOs looking for in both the organization and

By Matthew Perlman ( April 18, 2025, 9:47 PM EDT) — The ruling this week in the U.S. Department of Justice’s ad tech monopolization case against Google was a major victory but not a total win for the government, and it raises questions about what the fix should be, especially with a trial looming over remedies in a separate case over search…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

We can’t emphasize enough the importance of interconnected networks and ecosystems to the enterprise application software market. Industry cloud providers and hyperscalers possess several key advantages in nurturing and leading these innovation networks. So what does this acceleration of AI software and services on industry cloud and hyperscaler marketplaces mean? Well, it depends on the customer segment the providers are vying to attract. Enterprises are driven by strategic advantages, risk mitigation, maximizing the value derived from their AI investments, improving data locality, and reducing latency — all while prioritizing optimizing costs and operational performance. Independent software vendors (ISVs) are driven by a unique set of business and strategic goals that focus on building trust and meeting customer requirements while protecting their IP and mindshare. For regulated industries, because these ecosystems often involve third-party vendors and cloud platforms, the vetting of AI partners and solutions requires a heightened level of scrutiny. The desire for AI sovereignty is much stronger than a policy concern — it must comply with strict legal mandates and AI-specific legislation such as the EU AI Act; this is critical for national security and economic interests. They are driven by the control over key enablers of AI development, deployment, and the implications of global access and collaboration. What do all the stakeholders have to gain from enterprise software markets operating within these massive ecosystems? For Enterprises Increased accessibility to advanced AI capabilities. Enterprises gain easier access to a wide array of cutting-edge AI tools and services without the need for significant upfront investment in infrastructure or specialized AI expertise. Hyperscalers’ marketplaces offer pretrained models, machine learning platforms, and AI-powered services for various applications — all of which can be procured through committed cloud spend, cutting out vendor onboarding cycles. For example, a B2C company can readily access AI-powered recommendation engines on a hyperscaler marketplace to personalize customer experiences and increase sales after a “try before you buy” proves its value. Cost optimization. Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pricing models can lead to cost savings compared to building and maintaining in-house AI infrastructure, but cloud migration efforts may still require upfront investments that can sometimes be offset or spread over time. Once you modernize with the cloud, enterprises can scale their AI usage based on actual needs and pace implementations that align with strategic priorities. Do beware, however, that mature governance is required to mitigate both buyer and provider challenges with the PAYG licensing model. If one software product isn’t paying off as expected, it’s easy enough to find an alternative on the marketplace and “recompose” your stack to adopt it. For ISVs Simplified go-to-market strategies. These marketplaces allow small ISVs to be part of integrated billing, procurement, logistics, and marketing tools, simplifying the way ISVs offer their AI-powered software and services to a wider audience, leveraging hyperscaler capabilities, and managing multiple listings across marketplaces. Highly scalable infrastructure capabilities. ISVs can build their solutions on top of highly scalable infrastructure, enhancing the performance and scalability of their offerings while focusing on their unique industry expertise. Faster innovation through integration. ISVs can integrate their AI solutions with other services available on the marketplaces, creating more comprehensive and valuable offerings for customers. This is quite valuable for the enterprise business application market. ISVs, this is your opportunity to leverage these marketplaces and ecosystems to develop AI models and create AI solutions that address these challenges — making your solutions a critical asset to organizations for deploying enterprise solutions at scale. For Regulated Industries Focus on specific industry needs. Industry clouds are tailored to meet the unique compliance, security, and operational requirements of regulated sectors such as government and healthcare, providing a trusted environment for deploying AI solutions. Ensuring ethics and AI sovereignty in government is a highly contentious and complex debate. New options continue to shape the landscape, but no one is dominating the headlines yet. Force much-needed attention to governance, transparency, and risk mitigation. Traditional enterprise business applications faced the “black box” problem even before AI’s unique challenges amplified the complexity of governance and risk mitigation. Users didn’t understand the internal workings of the software; debugging and problem resolution were challenging; and third-party libraries and closed-source components had limited visibility. While modern platform ecosystems expedite procurement and deployment, they inadvertently introduce complexities around data governance, model oversight, and IP protection. These accelerated networks are forcing organizations to move faster and enter the market with stronger governance. Additionally, strict contractual clauses around vendor accountability and breach notifications are crucial for meeting compliance requirements and holding the vendors accountable to those commitments. Maximize interoperability and data sharing (with safeguards). AI can facilitate secure and compliant data sharing and interoperability across different agencies or healthcare providers, leading to better insights and more coordinated services. Pay Attention To The Ecosystem Trends That Reshape The Business Landscape These trends present both opportunities and challenges that can significantly impact organizations’ strategies and long-term success.   Let’s Connect Continue the conversation with our analysts who focus on enterprise business applications, industry cloud, and hyperscalers: Faram Medhora, Kate Leggett, Akshara Naik Lopez, Joe Cicman, Tracy Woo, and Bill Martorelli. Relevant Research Thank you to the following analysts for contributing to this blog: Kate Leggett, Bill Martorelli, and Joe Cicman. source

Popularity consolidated in the top 20 programming languages in April, according to TIOBE Software CEO Paul Jansen. C overtook Java for the number three spot between March and April. Key takeaways from the April TIOBE Index rankings: SQL continues to fall as it has done over the last few months, dropping to the number 10 position. C++ held on to the number two spot, showing a significant year-over-year increase in the proprietary points system. Python’s popularity dipped slightly month-over-month, but it still holds a significant lead over the second-place language, C++. Take this survey for a chance to win a gift card: Tell our sister site DZone about your work with APIs by completing this brief survey for a chance to enter to win one of two $120 e-gift cards of your choice.  Kotlin and Swift decline when they’re no longer the best picks for mobile Kotlin, Ruby, and Swift are all “likely to go out of fashion” after reliably holding on to spots in the top 20, Jansen said. Why? For Kotlin and Swift, the answer comes down to new programming languages entering and competing within their niches. “Kotlin and Swift have the same reason why they are declining,” Jansen said. “They are both mainly used for one particular mobile platform, Android and iOS, respectively, whereas there are other sufficiently good languages and frameworks to develop cross platform nowadays.” Swift can technically be used for Android development as well, but it may present unnecessary barriers in the process. Meanwhile, Ruby is a general-purpose language once considered a rival to Python; it competed for space with Perl, too. Now, Python has pulled well ahead of both Python and Perl (which sits at 19th on the TIOBE Programming Community Index), and Ruby garners less interest. Interest consolidates in the most popular programming languages Now may not be the time to try to create a new programming language or to learn one of the lesser-known options. Along with ranking individual programming languages, Jansen also keeps an eye on the entire market. In April, he noted the top 20 languages account for 82.56% of the total market, compared to a usual share of about 75%. The industry is in what he called “a consolidation phase.” “This means that the market is a bit defensive, preferring proven technology to trying out new technologies,” Jansen said. source