Image: TechnologyAdvice The March TIOBE Index has revealed an interesting trend: legacy programming languages are growing in popularity among developers. Delphi/Object Pascal is clinging onto a top 10 spot, while COBOL and new entry Ada appear further down the list. However, Python remains firmly in the number one position, accounting for 23.85% of search engine queries, job postings, and educational references — an 8.22% from March 2024. In January, TIOBE Software CEO Paul Jansen referred to it as the “default language.” It’s simply so popular among non-software engineers working to get into programming. Top 10 programming languages in March 2025 According to the TIOBE Programming Community index, the following are the top 10 programming languages in March 2025: Python: A general-purpose programming language commonly used for back-end development and data science. A good programming language for beginners. C++: Very similar to C, with the addition of classes and objects. C++ is well-suited for game and system development. It may be relatively difficult to learn. Java: An exceptionally good language for AI, app, and web development. Java requires relatively advanced skills to learn. C: A programming language often used in app and system development. Its syntax is similar to other popular languages, making it a useful branching-off point for beginner developers. C#: Used in app, game, and web development, C# is an object- and component-oriented programming language similar to the C and Java language families. JavaScript: A scripting language often used for app, game, and web development as well as web servers. JavaScript is simpler and more flexible than Java, which makes it inappropriate for some programming tasks but often easier to learn. Go: Go is a relatively easy-to-learn language that is good for back-end development and working with APIs and web services. SQL: A programming language intended to be used to store and process information in databases. Visual Basic: A programming language with a drag-and-drop user interface good for front-end and full-stack development. Delphi/Object Pascal: Object Pascal is an object-oriented programming language spun out of the Pascal language by Apple developers and often used with the Delphi compiler. Notable movements in the top 10 list in March TIOBE’s proprietary points system considers the most popular programming languages according to various large search engines. Image: TIOBE Software Go and Visual Basic both climbed one position, reaching seventh and ninth respectively, indicating a return to their rankings from January. SQL dropped to eighth place, while Delphi/Object Pascal is barely holding on to a top ten spot after only entering it at the start of the year. Further down the board, Ada experienced similar growth in popularity, rising from 24th place to 18th place year-over-year. The following were the top 10 programming languages in February 2025: Python C++ Java C C# JavaScript SQL Go Delphi/Object Pascal Visual Basic Must-read developer coverage Top 10 programming languages in January 2025 The top 10 programming languages in January 2025, according to the TIOBE Programming Community index, are: Python C++ Java C C# JavaScript Go SQL Visual Basic Fortran Top 10 programming languages in December 2024 The top 10 programming languages in December 2024, according to the TIOBE Programming Community index, are: Python C++ Java C C# JavaScript Go SQL Visual Basic Fortran Top 10 programming languages in November 2024 The top 10 programming languages in November 2024, according to the TIOBE Programming Community index, are: Python C++ Java C C# JavaScript Go Fortran Visual Basic SQL Top 10 programming languages in October 2024 The top 10 programming languages in October 2024, according to the TIOBE Programming Community index, are: Python C++ Java C C# JavaScript VisualBasic Go Fortran Delphi/Object Pascal What is the TIOBE Index? The TIOBE Index is an indicator of which programming languages are most popular within a given month. Its proprietor, TIOBE Software CEO Paul Jansen, notes the index is not a prize for the “best” language or a list of in which programming language the most code has been written; instead, he uses popular search engines to determine which languages are most used among professional programmers, programming courses and third-party vendors. source

In an age where almost every prospective customer or client is connected and online, an organization’s website often functions as the first point of contact. This is also the age when many employees perform work activities through a website interface. These factors mean the website is extremely important to the success of an organization, regardless of industry. In such an operating environment, a website must reliably and seamlessly provide each visitor with a memorable and functional experience. To ensure their website’s user experience is predictable, consistent, and reliable, organizations typically hire specialists known as site reliability engineers. These individuals have experience and expertise in both the front-facing aspects of website design and user experience and backend support functions like cloud computing, database management, and artificial intelligence. Key considerations when hiring a site reliability engineer Hiring the best site reliability engineer can be easier than you think. Key considerations involve establishing the right salary, identifying necessary personality traits and skills, clarifying job duties and responsibilities, specifying desired competencies and experience, preparing effective interview questions, and crafting a job advertisement. For example, the role of a site reliability engineer mostly revolves around writing and developing code to automate processes such as analyzing logs, testing production environments, and responding to any issues that may arise. The site reliability engineer is a software developer with experience in and knowledge of IT operations. Because coding is such an important part of this role, programming skills are vital. This also means many positions will require individuals with significant experience. Practical experience in IT operations and development planning is also a major consideration. In addition, site reliability engineers will need to have knowledge and experience with various automation tools because they are often responsible for building and integrating software tools to enhance an organizational system’s reliability and scalability. Successful candidates will have demonstrable skills in cooperation and social interaction. They should also have advanced verbal and written communication skills. Experience with tools specifically used by your company will be a plus, but adaptability and the ability to learn on the job will be paramount. Choosing the right site reliability engineer for your business Researching all the aforementioned considerations can be a time-intensive effort, and formulating the right interview questions can be a challenging part of the process. Fortunately, TechRepublic Premium’s hiring kit, with its adjustable framework, is now available to help your business find the ideal candidate for a site reliability engineer position. To explore how a candidate processes project information, the resource covers an interview question on how the candidate writes a piece of code, from requirements to delivery. This question expects candidates to mention requirements analysis, specifications, and architecture in their response. Recruiters must also note the candidate’s programming language choices and check if they match the company’s. Another major role of a site reliability engineer is troubleshooting problems, failures, and other contingencies. This role means that such individuals are subject to immediate response requirements during non-typical working hours. This level of on-call pressure requires candidates with strong mental and physical constitutions, particularly where production systems are involved. To look into this, the hiring kit includes a question that delves into how the candidate handled pressure and stress in the past. If this appeals to you, the 12-page hiring kit is available for $19 at TechRepublic Premium. source

This year’s program features both established categories and new additions. Organisations can nominate candidates for the coveted New Zealand CIO of the Year and Emerging ICT Leader of the Year awards, alongside newly introduced categories including Innovation Leadership Through an Emerging Technology and Excellence in Customer Value. The lineup is rounded out with Business Transformation through Digital and IT, Community Tech Champions, and Best ICT Team Culture & Inclusion. The awards organisers said the judging panel is particularly interested in how technology solutions address real-world challenges, the role of team culture in driving initiatives, measurable impact regardless of project scale, strategic vision for the future, and evidence of cross-organisational support beyond IT departments. Nominations will remain open until Friday, May 13, 2025. Award recipients will be announced at the New Zealand CIO Awards Gala Dinner in Auckland on 19 August, which typically attracts hundreds of technology executives and industry leaders from across New Zealand. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Patronus AI announced today the launch of what it calls the industry’s first multimodal large language model-as-a-judge (MLLM-as-a-Judge), a tool designed to evaluate AI systems that interpret images and produce text. The new evaluation technology aims to help developers detect and mitigate hallucinations and reliability issues in multimodal AI applications. E-commerce giant Etsy has already implemented the technology to verify caption accuracy for product images across its marketplace of handmade and vintage goods. “Super excited to announce that Etsy is one of our ship customers,” said Anand Kannappan, cofounder of Patronus AI, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “They have hundreds of millions of items in their online marketplace for handmade and vintage products that people are creating around the world. One of the things that their AI team wanted to be able to leverage generative AI for was the ability to auto-generate image captions and to make sure that as they scale across their entire global user base, that the captions that are generated are ultimately correct.” Why Google’s Gemini powers the new AI judge rather than OpenAI Patronus built its first MLLM-as-a-Judge, called Judge-Image, on Google’s Gemini model after extensive research comparing it with alternatives like OpenAI’s GPT-4V. “We tended to see that there was a slighter preference toward egocentricity with GPT-4V, whereas we saw that Gemini was less biased in those ways and had more of an equitable approach to being able to judge different kinds of input-output pairs,” Kannappan explained. “That was seen in the uniform scoring distribution across the different sources that they looked at.” The company’s research yielded another surprising insight about multimodal evaluation. Unlike text-only evaluations where multi-step reasoning often improves performance, Kannappan noted that it “typically doesn’t actually increase MLLM judge performance” for image-based assessments. Judge-Image provides ready-to-use evaluators that assess image captions on multiple criteria, including caption hallucination detection, recognition of primary and non-primary objects, object location accuracy, and text detection and analysis. Beyond retail: How marketing teams and law firms can benefit from AI image evaluation While Etsy represents a flagship customer in e-commerce, Patronus sees applications extending far beyond retail. These include “marketing teams across companies that are generally looking at being able to scalably create descriptions and captions against new blocks in design, especially marketing design, but also product design,” Kannappan said. He also highlighted applications for enterprises dealing with document processing: “Larger enterprises like venture services companies and law firms typically might have engineering teams that are using relatively legacy technology to be able to extract different kinds of information from PDFs, to be able to summarize the content inside of larger documents.” As AI becomes increasingly critical to business processes, many companies face the build-versus-buy dilemma for evaluation tools. Kannappan argues that outsourcing AI evaluation makes strategic and economic sense. “As we’ve worked with teams, [we’ve found that] a lot of folks may start with something to see if they can develop something internally, and then they realize that it’s, one, not core to their value prop or the product they’re developing. And two, it is a very challenging problem, both from an AI perspective, but also from an infrastructure perspective,” he said. This applies particularly to multimodal systems, where failures can occur at multiple points in the process. “When you’re dealing with RAG systems or agents, or even multimodal AI systems, we’re seeing that failures happen across all parts of the system,” Kannappan noted. How Patronus plans to make money while competing with tech giants Patronus offers multiple pricing tiers, starting with a free option that allows users to experiment with the platform up to certain volume limits. Beyond that threshold, customers pay as they go for evaluator usage or can engage with the sales team for enterprise arrangements with custom features and tailored pricing. Despite using Google’s Gemini model as its foundation, the company positions itself as complementary rather than competitive with foundation model providers like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. “We don’t necessarily see the technology that we build or the solutions that we build as competitive with foundational companies, but rather very complementary and additional new powerful tools in the toolkit that ultimately help folks develop better LLM systems, as opposed to LLMs themselves,” Kannappan said. Audio evaluation coming next as Patronus expands multimodal oversight Today’s announcement represents one step in Patronus’s broader strategy for AI evaluation across different modalities. The company plans to expand beyond images into audio evaluation soon. “We’re excited because this is the next phase of our vision towards multimodal, and specifically focused on images today — and then over time, we’re excited about what we’ll do, especially with audio in the future,” Kannappan confirmed. This roadmap aligns with what Kannappan describes as the company’s “research vision towards scalable oversight” — developing evaluation mechanisms that can keep pace with increasingly sophisticated AI systems. “We continue to develop new systems, products, frameworks, methods that ultimately are equally capable as the intelligent systems that we intend to want to have oversight over as humans in the long run,” he said. As businesses race to deploy AI systems that can interpret images, extract text from documents, and generate visual content, the risk of inaccuracies, hallucinations and biases grows. Patronus is betting that even as foundation models improve, the challenges of evaluating complex multimodal AI systems will remain — requiring specialized tools that can serve as impartial judges of increasingly human-like AI output. In the high-stakes world of commercial AI deployment, these digital judges may prove as valuable as the models they evaluate. source

By Christopher Cole ( March 13, 2025, 5:33 PM EDT) — Republicans on the five-seat Federal Communications Commission need a critical third vote to push through many of the changes they envision for the nation’s telecom policies, and the White House has chosen longtime Capitol Hill aide Olivia Trusty for the role…. 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

Companies have been grappling for years with how to personalize customer interactions without being creepy, and data deprecation only adds more complexity. Though Google scrapped its plans to deprecate the third-party cookie, privacy regulations and consumer use of privacy-protecting browsers and tools motivate brands to focus on collecting data directly from consumers. Doing so helps drive personalization across both known and unknown site visitors, builds consent into the workflow, and creates a more transparent approach to personalization. But this presents a new challenge: how to ask consumers for data in a way that is user-friendly and encourages them to share their information. Zero-Party Data Helps Brands Better Understand Consumers Even first-party data has its limits when encountering new prospects or unknown site visitors. Zero-party data experiences, such as a quick poll, quiz, or website widget, provide high-quality, accurate data from consumers directly. Forrester defines zero-party data as: Data that a customer intentionally and proactively shares with a brand. It can include preference center data, purchase intentions, personal context, and how the individual wants the brand to recognize them. The most successful zero-party data experiences are short, simple, and offer a clear value exchange. We just updated our report, An Illustrated Guide To Collecting Zero-Party Data, which showcases updated examples of asking for zero-party data for three use cases: product recommendations, consumer segmentation, and market research. MECCA Australia, a beauty retailer, draws consumers to a skincare quiz through a banner at the top of the website. This quiz asks seven questions about the shopper’s skin type, skincare routine, goals, and more, with questions such as “Where are you in your skin journey?” and “How would you describe your skin?” This is data that MECCA can’t infer, observe, or buy with certainty, which makes it highly valuable. And MECCA can use this data to understand how to communicate relevantly and personalize the customer journey. For shoppers, they receive tailored product recommendations and communications based on their answers. For more examples and best practices, check out our new report and set up a guidance session for a deeper dive. source

Irish startup Equal1 has unveiled the world’s first quantum computer that runs on a hybrid quantum-classical silicon chip.  Dubbed Bell-1 — after quantum physicist John Stewart Bell — the computer weighs around 200kg and plugs into a regular electrical socket. The rack-mountable machine is designed to simply slot into high-performance computing (HPC) data centres alongside standard servers.  Equal1’s CEO Jason Lynch told TNW that combining quantum technology with today’s most advanced classical processors offers the fastest route to a quantum computer capable of potentially world-changing calculations.  The potential applications are endless. Quantum computers have the potential to solve complex problems that classical computers cannot, which could lead to breakthroughs in drug discovery, cryptography, modelling, and AI.  3 free tickets to TNW Conference? Get them now! For a limited time, groups can get up to three extra free tickets! Book now and increase your visibility and connections at TNW Conference “We’re leveraging established semiconductor technologies to scale up faster than the competition,” said Lynch. “This is the best way to scale quantum computing at the pace required.”  The Bell-1 quantum computer inside its shield. Credit: Equal1 Equal1 marries classical transistors (for normal computing tasks) and quantum transistors (for qubits) in a single silicon-based chip. Qubits, akin to bits in a regular PC, are the basic units of information in a quantum computer. The more you have, the faster the machine.  Most quantum computing technologies are based on either trapped-ion or superconducting  qubits. However, Equal1’s design uses silicon-spin qubits.  Bell-1 is noticeably smaller than most quantum computers out there. The company credits this to its closed cycle cryo-cooler that allows the machine to operate at 0.3 Kelvin (-272.85°C) without requiring massive external dilution refrigerators.  Most quantum computers need to be kept super cool because heat causes errors by disrupting the delicate quantum states of qubits (there are exceptions, however).   The machine’s cooling system. Credit: Equal1 For now, Bell-1 is limited to just 6 qubits, which means it’s not yet capable of solving real-world problems. For comparison, Google’s recently unveiled Willow chip has 105 qubits. However, Google’s machine isn’t available to buy — Bell-1 is.  “Tech companies are recruiting more and more quantum experts now as they explore the future possibilities of this technology,” said Lynch. “Bell-1 will help them, and others, run experiments like quantum phase estimation and error correction that will form the foundation for more powerful processors in the future.”  The chip for Bell-1. Credit: Equal1 Equal1’s quantum journey Equal1 was founded in 2018 as a spin-off from University College Dublin. The startup currently employs about 45 people and, while still based in the Irish capital, has an expanding presence in the Netherlands — one of the world leaders in quantum technology.  The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) recently backed Equal1 with an undisclosed investment. Last year, the Irish company opened a research facility close to TU/Delft, an emerging hub for quantum tech startups such as QuantWare.  By leveraging standard semiconductor manufacturing, Equal1 aims to bring quantum computing closer to real-world applications faster than its competitors. That competition pool is growing, though, and fast. In the past few months alone, Google launched quantum chip Willow, Microsoft unveiled Majorana, and Amazon revealed Ocelot.  Quantum computing is on the new agenda for TNW Conference, which takes place on June 19-20 in Amsterdam. To get 30% off your ticket, use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the check-out. source

By Alexander Altman and Starr Turner Drum ( March 14, 2025, 4:37 PM EDT) — Almost one year after going into effect, the Washington My Health My Data Act has seen its first consumer class action claim: Maxwell v. Amazon.com Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. … 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

The security landscape continues to evolve, as does global uncertainty, leaving CISOs to prepare for turbulence ahead. Our latest report, Top Recommendations For Your Security Program, 2025, provides timely guidance for security leaders as they navigate another precarious year for their roles, programs, and organizations. We’ve included four of our 12 recommendations in this blog as a starter pack for what CISOs will deal with in 2025 and, most importantly, what they should do about it. Our recommendations for 2025 fall into four main themes: The changing consequences of the CISO role Changing technology across the enterprise and in cybersecurity Ever-present yet changing threats Securing emerging tech We design our insights to help technology leaders, chief information officers, and chief information security officers (CISOs) and their teams stay ahead of the curve and more effectively advocate for their programs. Deal With Changing Consequences: Cover Stakeholders, Reduce Risk For the past four years, we’ve been advising CISOs to link three groups of external stakeholders to their programs and budgets. Customers, cyberinsurance carriers, and regulators represent revenue won or lost, tie security to the cost of doing business, and should be an integral part of program planning in 2025 and beyond. Recommendation: Conduct a materiality tabletop exercise. With the SEC’s Item 1.05 of Form 8-K requiring companies to disclose the material impact of cybersecurity incidents, it’s crucial for CISOs to prepare. Conducting a materiality tabletop exercise with senior executives and counsel helps form an understanding of the processes and decision points needed to determine incident materiality. This proactive approach ensures that your team is ready to disclose incidents appropriately, avoiding civil penalties. Deal With Changing Technology: Make Plans For (Or Against) Platformization As tools, technologies, products, and services consolidate and compete for the biggest share of your security tech stack and the market hurtles toward behemoth proactive and reactive security platform players — in some cases, both — CISOs shouldn’t necessarily match the frenetic pace of the market with platform adoption. Not all platforms make sense for your program and organization, but some may provide benefits exceeding those of point solutions. Recommendation: Reduce your SIEM bill with data pipeline management. Data pipeline management (DPM) tools help reduce data ingest costs and facilitate easier migration to new platforms. By adopting DPM tools, security teams can manage data more efficiently, reducing costs and improving their overall data management strategy. Deal With Changing Threats: Address Geopolitical Issues The current geopolitical climate leaves CISOs with the duty and responsibility to protect their organizations or risk becoming collateral — or direct — damage as governments posture against one another. With trade breakdowns fraying already fragile supply chains and nations vying for AI dominance, focus your defensive efforts to stay nimble and ready to meet new demands placed on your program. Recommendation: Prepare for cryptoagility as a prerequisite for post-quantum security. Quantum computing poses a significant threat to traditional cryptography. CISOs must start preparing for post-quantum security by assessing the impact of quantum computing and ensuring that their systems are cryptoagile. This involves discovering and prioritizing data, keys, and algorithms that need to be updated to quantum-safe cryptography. Deal With Emerging Technology: Keep Your Eyes On The Horizon These technologies should be on the radar of your emerging technology team and security architects, because things will happen quickly once they arrive. Prepare now for what happens as 2025 progresses and we move into 2026. Recommendation: Grow machine identity governance. Machine identities are proliferating, and securing them is crucial. CISOs should build an inventory of machine identities and implement a purpose-built machine identity management solution. This will help prevent unauthorized access and reduce the risk of data breaches. For a deeper dive into these insights and more, read the full report, Top Recommendations For Your Security Program, 2025, and register for our webinar on Wednesday, April 16 at 11 a.m. ET. Forrester clients can also schedule an inquiry or guidance session to discuss our recommendations and how they apply to your organization. source